Introduction

In the specification for CSS level 2 ยง 10.6.4, this language is used to describe how to compute the static position of an absolutely positioned block:

For the purposes of this section and the next, the term static position (of an element) refers, roughly, to the position an element would have had in the normal flow. [...] But rather than actually calculating the dimensions of that hypothetical box, user agents are free to make a guess at its probable position.

This specification defines how to compute or guess static position, using hypothetical static boxes.