Which property allows rearranging the order of addends in a sum?

Which property allows rearranging the order of addends in a sum?

• A. Commutative property of addition
• B. Associative property of addition
• C. Distributive property of multiplication over addition
• D. Additive identity property

Answer: (A)

Swapping the order of addends without changing the result is about the commutative property of addition. It says that a + b equals b + a for any numbers a and b. This lets you rearrange numbers to make mental math easier or to line up like terms. For example, 8 + 15 is the same as 15 + 8, both totaling 23. This idea applies to addition (and also to multiplication), but not to subtraction or division, where order changes the result. Other properties describe different ideas—grouping with the associative property, distributing multiplication over addition, or adding zero with the additive identity property.

Swapping the order of addends without changing the result is about the commutative property of addition. It says that a + b equals b + a for any numbers a and b. This lets you rearrange numbers to make mental math easier or to line up like terms. For example, 8 + 15 is the same as 15 + 8, both totaling 23. This idea applies to addition (and also to multiplication), but not to subtraction or division, where order changes the result. Other properties describe different ideas—grouping with the associative property, distributing multiplication over addition, or adding zero with the additive identity property.