Answer from cs61c-al (Phillip Chin 16156822) for Question 4
The IEEE 754 standard allows for a good way to express partial numbers (non-whole numbers). It was a clever way of using scientific notation. Those are really big advantages. The only disadvantage is the inconvience I suppose is the limitation. I know that big of numbers will not be used, but it looks we're heading in that direction anyway. If they didn't force that implicit 1 as the first digit, it would allow for a larger range of numbers. Other than that it's a good standard.