Please explain why we use 32768 in Audio Signals

Question

I'm new to audio signals. What is the value 32768 that we use here?

Sample code:

rate, data = wavfile.read(wav_loc)
data = data / 32768

Answer 1

Assuming that the wav-file is 16 bit integer, the range is [-32768, 32767], thus dividing by 32768 (2^15) will give the proper twos-complement range of [-1, 1]