Question

jerome tries to find the value of the expression 3-6+5 by first applying the communtative property. he rewrites the expression as 3-5+6. explain what is wrong with jeromes approach

Answer 1

The commutative property is a property of addition, not of subtraction. It can work in a subtraction problem if you keep the sign with the number, so you're adding positive and negative numbers.

3 - 6 + 5

= (3) + (-6) + (5)

= (3) + (5) + (-6)

= 3 + 5 - 6