Final answer:
The value of 'a' results in 5.0, as the floor division operator in Python ('//') discards the fractional part and rounds down to the nearest whole number after division.
Step-by-step explanation:
The value of a after evaluating the code a = 17.0 // 3.0 is 5.0. The double slash (//) is a floor division operator, which divides the first number by the second and then rounds down to the nearest whole number. In this case, 17.0 divided by 3.0 is approximately 5.666666666666667, but when using floor division, the decimal points are disregarded, leaving us with 5.0 as the result.