Key learning points

1. A calculation may be made easier by applying more than one of the associative, commutative or distributive laws.
2. Steps taken should progress the calculation steps.
3. If a more efficient way cannot be spotted, the calculation can still be calculated using other methods.

Keywords

• Commutative - An operation is commutative if the values it is operating on can be written in either order without changing the calculation.

• Associative - The associative law states that a repeated application of the operation produces the same result regardless how pairs of values are grouped.

• Distributive - The distributive law says that multiplying a sum is the same as multiplying each addend and summing the result.

Common misconception