2. Mantissa and Exponent

Floating point is used in both denary (base 10) and binary (base 2).

Floating point is sometime called 'scientific notation' as it is widely used in the sciences and engineering.

It looks like this:

$$ -2.3453 \times 10^3 $$

The part on the left is called the mantissa and it contains the size of the number, as well as the sign (positive or negative).

The part on the right ($10^3$) includes the number base (10 denary) and its power which is called is called the exponent.

For denary numbers, the exponent will always be a power of 10 (for example $10^3$). For binary numbers, it will be a power of 2 (for example $2^3$).