The property states that for all real numbers a, b, and c, their product is always the same, regardless of their grouping: (a . b) . c = a . (b . c)
Example:
(6 . 7) . 8 = 6 . (7 . 8)
The associative property also applies to complex numbers.
Also, as a consequence of the associative property,
(a . b) . c and a . (b . c) can both be written as a . b . c without ambiguity.
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The associative property of multiplication states that for any three numbers a, b and c, (a * b) * c = a * (b * c) and so we can write either as a * b * c without ambiguity. The associative property of multiplication means that you can change the grouping of the expression and still have the same product.
Commutative: a × b = b × a Associative: (a × b) × c = a × (b × c) Distributive: a × (b + c) = a × b + a × c
The associative property is the property that a * (b * c) = (a * b) * c for any binary operation *. Addition and multiplication are associative, but these are definitely not the only two operations that obey this property.
The Associative Property
the associative property of addition means that changing the grouping of the addends doesn't affect the sum