document.write( "<A HREF=/cgi-bin/jump-to-question.mpl?question=538699>Question 538699</A>: <I><SPAN STYLE=\"word-break: break-all;\"> Can you please help me to understand the associative and commutative property?<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "</I><HR><TABLE width=100%><TR><TD><B><A HREF=http://www.algebra.com/>Algebra.Com's</A> Answer #353231 by </B><A HREF=/tutors/aboutme.mpl?userid=richard1234><B>richard1234(7193)</B></A><img src=\"/images/stars/stars-13.gif\" alt=\"\" >&nbsp;<A HREF=/tutors/aboutme.mpl?userid=richard1234><IMG SRC=http://www.algebra.com/images/aboutme-small.gif BORDER=0 alt=\"About Me\" VALIGN=MIDDLE></A>&nbsp;<IMG SRC=http://www.algebra.com/cgi-bin/show-face.mpl?user=richard1234><BR>You can <A HREF=\"/cgi-bin/embed-solution.mpl?show=1&solution=353231\">put this solution on YOUR website!</A><BR><SPAN STYLE=\"word-break: break-all;\"> Consider a binary operation * (such as addition, subtraction, multiplication).\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "The operation * is associative if a*(b*c) = (a*b)*c for all a,b,c. In other words, the order of which operation is done first does not matter.\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "The operation * is commutative if a*b = b*a. This means that the order of your arguments (a,b) does not matter.\r<BR>\n" );
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document.write( "Addition and multiplication are both associative and commutative. Note that associativity and commutativity are not limited to addition and multiplication (other operations, like vector dot products, are commutative). </SPAN>\n" );
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