The associative property allows us to group numbers in different ways when adding or multiplying, without changing the outcome. This means we can rearrange the terms in an expression to create an equivalent expression.
For the expression 2 + 11y, we can apply the associative property by grouping the terms. While addition is straightforward, we can illustrate the property like this:
- Original Expression: 2 + 11y
- Grouped Expression: (2 + 11)y + 0
Here, we’re not changing the value, just the grouping. What’s important is to show that we can rearrange the expression in a way that keeps its value intact.
Another way to apply the associative property would be if we had multiple terms with multiplication. For instance, if we were also multiplying a factor like 3, we could express it as:
- 3(2 + 11y) is equivalent to 6 + 33y
In summary, the associative property helps us rearrange and group terms in an expression, forming equivalent expressions without changing their values.