### A good answer might be:

The exponent.

# The Exponent

The eight bits 23 through 30 contain the exponent. The exponent is an integer, but may be negative, zero, or positive. You might guess that an 8-bit two's complement integer would work perfectly for this, but a different type of notation is used.

The exponent is expressed using a biased integer. This is an unsigned binary integer that has `+127` added to it.

- A biased exponent of `+127` represents the actual exponent 0.
- A biased exponent of `+128` represents the actual exponent 1.
- A biased exponent of `+126` represents the actual exponent -1.

Exceptions: (1) when the entire float is zero the exponent `0` is used. (2) the exponent `255` is used to signal various problems, such as division by zero.

### QUESTION 15:

What is the mantissa when the entire float is zero?