Write down the bit pattern in the mantissa assuming a floating point format that uses Binary Coded Decimal (base 10) numbers in the mantissa instead of base 2. Assume there are 24 bits, and you do not need to normalize. Is this representation exact?

Binary numbers are used in the mantissa field, but they do not have to be. IBM used base 16 numbers, for example, in some of their floating point formats. There are other approaches that are possible as well, each with their own particular advantages and disadvantages. The following table shows fractions to be represented in various floating point formats.

1/3 b. 1/10 a.