Associativity

Associative property is a property of mathematical operations (like addition and multiplication). It means that if you have more than one of the same associative operator (like +) in a row, the order of operations does not matter.

For example, if you have $2+5+10$, there are two plus signs (+) in a row. This means we can add it in either this order:

$(2+5)+10=(7)+10=17$

Or this order:

$2+(5+10)=2+(15)=17$

The answer comes out the same both ways because addition is associative. In other words, associativity means:

$(2+5)+10=2+(5+10)$

Not all operations are associative. Subtraction is not associative, which means:

$(10-5)-2\ne 10-(5-2)$

This is true because:

$(10-5)-2=(5)-2=3$

$10-(5-2)=10-(3)=7$

And:

$7\ne 3$

Also, associativity is different from commutativity, which lets you move the numbers around.