Answer: (i) Mantissa

In floating-point representation a number is stored as:

$$\text{Value} = (-1)^{S} \times M \times B^{E}$$

where S = sign bit, M = Mantissa (also called significand/mantissa) = significant digits/precision, E = exponent, B = base (2 for binary).

• Mantissa holds the significant digits of the number.
• Exponent scales the magnitude (position of binary point).
• e.g. $123.45 = 0.12345 \times 10^{3}$ → $0.12345$ is mantissa, $3$ is exponent.

So correct option is (i) Mantissa.