MATLAB: Expressing floating point numbers in IEEE standard

Question

How would you express a floating point number in IEEE standard? There would be three parts, the sign, the biased exponent, and the mantissa. But I don't quite understand how you would even break down a floating point number into these three parts.

Answer 1

Did you look at my answer to your other question yet? Here:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/67491-the-mantissa-of-a-floating-point-number

The document I point you to in that answer talks about that exact topic. Here's the link again, for your convenience:

http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/news_notes/pdf/Fall96Cleve.pdf