What is a property that states the order in which numbers are added or multiplied does not change the sum or product?

Answer 1

Either:

• The commutative property (or law):

number_1 x number_2 = number_2 x number_1

or

• The associative property (or law):

number_1 x (number_2 x number_3) = (number_1 x number_2) x number_3.

Both describe your question, but with a difference in the interpretation of "...the order in which the numbers are...":

• The commutative property says the numbers can be swapped over (the order reversed) and the result is the same.

• The associative property says the first two numbers can be operated on first, then the result of that with the third; or the order changed so that the second and third are operated on first and then the result of that with the first.