title: Range of floating point numbers in .NET?
body: <p>Excerpt from a book:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>A float value consists of a 24-bit
    signed mantissa and an 8-bit signed 
        exponent. The precision is approximately seven decimal digits.
    Values 
        range from 
        -3.402823 × 10^38 to 3.402823 × 10^38</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>How to calculate this range?  Can someone explain the binary arithmetic?</p>