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Answer:

Yes. The sign bit of 32-bit integers and of 32-bit floats is set (to one) when the value is negative and clear (to zero) when the value is positive or zero.


More on the Mantissa

The mantissa represents a number in 24-bit base two positional notation that looks like this:

1.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     

(x = 0 or 1; there are 23 x's)

Very tricky:  The mantissa represents the 23-bit binary fraction part of a 24-bit number that starts with a "1".

The 20 place (the one's place) is presumed to always contain a 1 and is not present in the mantissa. This trick gives us 24 bits of precision with only 23 bits.

For example, the binary number

1.11110000101101101010001

is represented as

11110000101101101010001


QUESTION 12:

If you had a daughter would you name her Mantissa?


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