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Defining Floating Point
Avogadro's Number: 6.022 × 1023
xxxxxx * bbb ^ eeee
Vocabulary:
- Mantissa: xxxxxx (Precision: # of digits)
- Radix or “Base”: bbb
- Exponent: eeee
- Sign: +/-
Notes:
Let's define some vocabulary. Mantissa is the “xxx” part. Precision is the number of digits in the mantissa. Radix is the “bbb”. It's usually either 10 or 2, but only because those are what we use most often. The exponent is the “eee”. There's also a sign (either + or -).