stupid maths question HELP!!

Hi,
can anyone help me with this question, ive looked all over the net and can't get anything:

constrained by the size of the register in your old personal compuer,

you decide to build a computer with larger floating point register

called R. Five octits can be represented in R. You decide on the

following format for the representation of the floating point

numbers: R: sign characteristic mantissa.
You have available a 1 octit characteristic and a 3 octit mantissa.

(a) what are the two largest numbers that can be represented in R?

How far apart are they?

(b) Write the following decimal numbers as they would be

represented in R (i) 51 (ii) -6.5

(c) express the following contents of R in decimal (i) 0 4 700 (ii) 1 7

375

(d) how would 510.625 be represented in R if truncation is used?

determine the relative error.

thanks,

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Are you sure your teacher isn't a member here? You might get in trouble for not doing your own homework.

I have no idea what the heck he just asked, but someone care to tell me which Math is this?

Computational theory - a kind of logic. Ala alan turing.
What is an octit? And are you really going to waste one just on the sign?

mantissa

1. <programming> The part of a floating point number which, when multiplied by its radix raised to the power of its exponent, gives its value. The mantissa may include the number's sign or this may be considered to be a separate part. 2. <mathematics> The fractional part of a logarithm. (1996-06-15)

radix

<mathematics> (Or "base", "number base") In a positional representation of numbers, that integer by which the significance of one digit place must be multiplied to give the significance of the next higher digit place. Conventional decimal numbers are radix ten, binary numbers are radix two. (1995-12-24)

Man I wonder how bad will I flunk in Calculus if this is nothing than calculus.

you seem to be babbling on about the system achitechture or a PC processor NOT maths