Alex stocks up for winter. he buys 32 cans of vegetables. he pays 80 cents per can for tomatoes and 40 cents per can for corn, for a total cost of $18.00. how many cans of corn does he buy?

Let x the the number of cans of tomatoes and 
      32 - x be the number of cans of corn

From the given that the total cost in buying all 32 cans of vegetables is $18 and the costs of each can of vegetables, we generate the equation,
 
                              18 = 0.80x + 0.40(32 - x)

Solving for x from the equation gives x = 13. Alex bought 32 - x cans of corn with a numerical value of 19. Thus, Alex bought 19 cans of corn.