The Associative Property of Addition and Multiplication
The associative property of addition states that the grouping of three terms being added does not affect the result:
(3 + 4) + 5 = 3 + (4 + 5) and (x + 6) + 10 = x + (6 + 10).
The associative property of multiplication states that the grouping of three terms being multiplied does not affect the result:
(2 * 3) * 4 = 2 * (3 * 4) and 5 * 3x = (5*3)x