Commutative property

The commutative property says that the order of the numbers when adding or multiplying can be changed without changing the answer. For example, both  and  are equal to 10, and both  and  are equal to 35. This can be done with any numbers, or with more than two numbers.
Definition
The definition of commutative property of addition is . a and b are variables and can be any number.

Some operations like dividing are not commutative. For instance,  is 2, but  is . Subtraction is not commutative either:  is 4, but  is negative 4.

Higher mathematics
In higher mathematics like calculus, there are other commutative operations besides adding and multiplying. Commutative property must hold for each two elements of an Abelian group.

Category:Algebra
Category:Rules of inference