What is the term used to describe a non-zero value representing the precision of a floating point number?

The term that accurately describes a non-zero value representing the precision of a floating-point number is the mantissa. In the context of floating-point representation, the mantissa (or significand) contains the significant digits of the number, which effectively captures its precision. When a floating-point number is expressed in scientific notation as ( m \times b^e ) (where ( m ) is the mantissa, ( b ) is the base, and ( e ) is the exponent), the mantissa plays a crucial role in determining how precise that number can be.

A non-zero mantissa indicates the actual digits that make up the floating-point value, and its size relative to the exponent influences the precision of the representation. Therefore, when discussing floating-point representation, the mantissa is pivotal for detailing how accurately numbers can be represented in computer systems.