A 5-bit system is capable of a maximum of ___ shades of gray.

A 5-bit system is capable of a maximum of ___ shades of gray.

• A. 16
• B. 24
• C. 32
• D. 64

Answer: (C)

The number of grayscale shades is determined by how many distinct values a pixel can hold, which for n bits is 2^n. With five bits, you can encode 2^5 = 32 different gray levels, typically ranging from 0 (black) to 31 (white) in binary. That’s why 32 shades of gray are possible with a 5-bit system. The other counts don’t fit a 5-bit expression: 16 would come from four bits, 24 isn’t a clean binary level count for standard grayscale, and 64 would require six bits.

The number of grayscale shades is determined by how many distinct values a pixel can hold, which for n bits is 2^n. With five bits, you can encode 2^5 = 32 different gray levels, typically ranging from 0 (black) to 31 (white) in binary. That’s why 32 shades of gray are possible with a 5-bit system. The other counts don’t fit a 5-bit expression: 16 would come from four bits, 24 isn’t a clean binary level count for standard grayscale, and 64 would require six bits.