Question

What is mantissa? Explain with an example.

Answer 1

Mantissa

Consider a number $N>0$

Then, the value of ${\log }_{10}N$ consist of two parts:

• Integral part
• Proper fractional part

The integral part is called the Characteristic and the fractional or the decimal part is called the Mantissa.

For example:

$$\begin{gathered} {\log }_{10}15=1.176 \\ =1+0.176 \end{gathered}$$

The Integral part is $1$ and the decimal or fractional part is$0.176$

Therefore, for the number ${\log }_{10}15$ the Characteristic is $1$ and the Mantissa is $0.176$