In the IEEE floating point representation, the hexadecimal value 0 × 00000000…

Answer: +0 (positive zero)

• Interpret the bit pattern 0x00000000 as a 32-bit IEEE 754 single-precision number: all bits are zero → sign = 0, exponent field (8 bits) = 0, fraction (mantissa) = 0.

• Rule: If exponent field = 0 and fraction = 0, the encoding denotes a signed zero. The sign bit determines +0 (sign = 0) or -0 (sign = 1).

• Normalized numbers require exponent field between 1 and 254 (biased). For single precision the bias is 127, so normalized exponents range from −126 to +127. Subnormal (denormal) numbers have exponent field = 0 and fraction ≠ 0; their values are (−1)^sign × 0.fraction × 2^(−126). The smallest positive subnormal is 2^-149.

• Therefore 0x00000000 represents the special value +0, not a normalized value.