Changing the grouping of the terms does not change the sum.
Equivalent: Yes Property: Associative Property
Practice makes perfect
We are given two expressions and we want to determine whether they are equivalent. We should first identify the operation being performed.
(35 + 17) + 43 and 35 + (17 + 43)In this case, the terms are being added. The addends are the same, but they are grouped differently. Let's consider the Associative Property.
Associative Property
The way in which three numbers are grouped when they are added or multiplied does not change their sum or product.
According to the Associative Property the expressions are equivalent. We can check our statement by calculating both sums.
