The error in Aaron's reasoning is that he is incorrectly applying the commutative property of addition. The commutative property states that changing the order of the numbers being added does not change the sum. However, in this case, the expressions –5 + 3 and –3 + 5 are not equal because they yield different results:
- –5 + 3 = –2
- –3 + 5 = 2
Thus, the statements are not equal, and the correct answer to the question about Aaron’s reasoning would be: The commutative property is not true for addition in these specific cases. However, strictly speaking, the commutative property is true for addition in general; the numbers he chose do not yield the same result in this situation.
In conclusion: The numbers are not in the correct order. (This could imply he expected the same sum but chose different numbers leading to different results.)
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