SLR 13

Question 1

what is the mantissa

Answer 1

the actual number in a floating point binary expression

Question 2

what is the exponent

Answer 2

the position of the binary point in a floating point binary expression

Question 3

one advantage of fixed point binary over floating point binary

Answer 3

you do not need more memory space to store the position of the binary point

Question 4

one advantage of floating point binary over fixed point binary

Answer 4

you can decide between precision or range, and can get a higher level of either

Question 5

EQ: how is range and precision of numbers held in floating point binary affected by the number of bits allocated to mantissa and exponent

Answer 5

More bits allocated to the exponent results in a higher range, but more allocated to mantissa means a higher precision

Question 6

Why is ASCII character set unsuitable for the modern world

Answer 6

As it is only cable of representing 2^8, or 128 different characters, and many languages use different alphabets with more characters.