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Scientific Notation

A direct analogy exists between scientific notation and radix point notation. For example, scientific notation using five decimal digits for the mantissa would take the form

where p is an integer of unrestricted range. Radix point notation using 5 bits for the mantissa is the same except for the number base

where q is an integer of unrestricted range. The previous equation is valid for both fixed- and floating-point numbers. For both these data types, the mantissa can be changed at any time by the processor. However, for fixed-point numbers, the exponent never changes, while for floating-point numbers, the exponent can be changed any time by the processor.

Floating-Point Arithmetic

The IEEE Format