The second fundamental property of addition concerns the way of grouping the terms.

Property — Associative property of addition

In a sum of terms, consecutive terms can be grouped into a single term: 3+7+1=(3+7)+1=3+(7+1).3 + 7 + 1 = (3+7) + 1 = 3 + (7+1).

We can therefore carry out the additions in whatever order we prefer, collecting first the terms that give convenient sums (for example, those that form tens).

Topics: Numbers and operations
Concepts: Associative property · Term