Which property of algebra should first be applied to 6a−14b+3a−6+21b−18a

in order to determine whether it is equivalent to −9a+7b−6
? (1 point)
Responses

Commutative Property
Commutative Property

Associative Property
Associative Property

Distributive Property
Distributive Property

Identity Property

1 answer

To determine whether the expression \(6a - 14b + 3a - 6 + 21b - 18a\) is equivalent to \(-9a + 7b - 6\), the first property you would apply is the Commutative Property.

The Commutative Property allows you to rearrange the terms of the expression without changing the sum. So, you can rearrange the terms of \(6a, 3a, -18a, -14b, 21b,\) and \(-6\) to group like terms together (like combining all the \(a\) terms and all the \(b\) terms), which is a crucial step in simplifying the expression to see if it equals the target expression.

Therefore, the answer is:

Commutative Property.