How to normalize a mantissa

Question

I\'m trying to convert an int into a custom float, in which the user specifies the amount of bits reserved for the exp and mantissa, but I don\'t understand how

Answer 1

To normalize a mantissa you place the decimal point to the left of the leftmost non-zero digit

for example

represent 10.11 base 2 in normalize form

= 0.1011 base 2 * 2 to the second power

the base of two is because you are working with binary numbers and the power of +ve 2 is because you moved the decimal point left two times. Remember that only 4 bits are used for the mantizza

so the mantizza would be 1011