Why is floating point called floating point?

Question

I tried to Google that but it didn’t help, so please be patient with me. I found this:

“The term floating point is derived from the fact that there is no fixed number of digits before and after the decimal point; that is, the decimal point can float. There are also representations in which the number of digits before and after the decimal point is set, called fixed-point representations. In general, floating-point representations are slower and less accurate than fixed-point representations, but they can handle a larger range of numbers.”

That doesn’t make sense to me. The decimal point stays where it is. What am I missing here?

In: 9

Answer 1

Say a floating point number can hold 5 digits, so this number is valid

12345

But so is this:

123.45

Or:

1.2345

The point moves around