The Associative Property
It applies to the operations of sum and multiplication.
Given three numbers a,b, and c, we can sum them as follows:
(a + b) + c
Here, we first added a+b and the result was then added with c
We can also sum them as:
a + (b + c).
Now we first added b+c and the result was then added with a
Both results are equivalent because of the distributive property with respect to the addition.
Applying to the multiplication we have:
(a * b) * c = a * (b * c)
For example, for the numbers a=5, b=2, c=4.
(5 + 2) + 4 = 7 + 4 = 11
5 + (2 + 4) = 5 + 6 = 11
Both sums are equivalent
(5 * 2 ) * 4 = 10 * 4 = 40
5 * (2 * 4) = 5 * 8 = 40
Both multiplications are equivalent