At the market, Joey buys 3 avocados for $0.40 each and 5 lemons for $0.40 each. The cashier in training rings up 3 × 0.40 and then 5 × 0.40 to get the total. The experienced cashier says to add the 3 plus 5 in his head and then ring up 8 × 0.40.

Question

What property says that these two totals would be the same?

associative property of multiplication
commutative property of multiplication
distributive property
multiplicative identity

Answer 1

The property that states that these two totals would be the same is the distributive property.

The distributive property allows you to multiply a single term by two or more terms inside a set of parentheses, which in this case means you can distribute the multiplication of 0.40 across the total number of avocados and lemons (3 + 5 = 8). Thus, whether you calculate (3 × 0.40) + (5 × 0.40) or (8 × 0.40), the results will be the same.