What is the decimal number 32 expressed in hexadecimal?

20.

In computing and mathematics, hexadecimal (often shortened to “hex”) is a base-16 system used to represent numbers. This system uses sixteen distinct symbols: 0-9 to represent values zero to nine, and A-F (or alternatively a-f) to represent values ten to fifteen. It’s frequently used in computer science and digital electronics because of its more human-friendly representation of binary-coded values.

To convert the decimal number 32 into a hexadecimal value:

1. First, we need to determine how many powers of 16 (the base of hexadecimal) are required to represent the number 32. The powers of 16 are:
   • 16⁰ = 1
   • 16¹ = 16
   • 16² = 256
   • and so on…
2. We can see that 32 is between 16⁰ and 16². Specifically, 16¹ or 16 can be used twice to get to 32. So, we can break down 32 as: 2×16¹.
3. Convert the coefficients of the power into hexadecimal symbols: For 2×16¹, the coefficient is 2, which remains 2 in hexadecimal.
4. Thus, the number 32 in decimal is represented as 20 in hexadecimal.

So, the decimal number 32 is expressed as “20” in the hexadecimal numbering system. In many contexts, to avoid confusion, you might see a prefix like “0x” added to indicate a hexadecimal representation, making it “0x20”.