The associative property refers to the way in which numbers are grouped in addition or multiplication; it states that the grouping of the numbers does not change the sum or product.
Looking at the expressions you provided:
- \(5.8 + 3 + 9.5\)
- \(8 + 3\)
You can apply the associative property to rearrange the grouping of the additions in these expressions. Here’s how it applies:
For the expression \(5.8 + 3 + 9.5\), you could group \(5.8\) and \(3\) together to rewrite it as \((5.8 + 3) + 9.5\), or group \(3\) and \(9.5\) together as \(5.8 + (3 + 9.5)\).
For the expression \(8 + 3\), it involves only two numbers, and since there’s no other number to group with, it does not showcase the associative property by itself.
Thus, the expression \(5.8 + 3 + 9.5\) can be rewritten using the associative property.
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