Good grief...

So 1/32, 1.5, and ND5 all mean the same thing?

And just to confuse things further, here in the rest of the world we designate our ND filtration as ND2 (1 stop), ND4 (2 stops), ND8 (3 stops).

Man that's confusing (and probably why I could never get a handle on why some of my ND filters were weaker than others!).

1/32 = 1.5 = ND32... at least the origins of the first and the last number match.

There was never any confusion in the world until video cameras came along and used their funky numbering system. You'd simply say, "Gimme the ND3 (meaning .3)." Using fractions on camera ND markers, however, is not nearly as bad as the fractionalized decimal Sony invented to confuse people about consumer camera chip size. The first one was something like a 1/4.7 chip--ie., a 1/5" chip, for all practical purposes. But people would see that figure and think--hey, it's bigger than 1/4". Rushkoff, in his books about consumerism, writes about how the molders of public feelings deliberately try to confuse the masses.