The Basic Laws of Arithmetic

The basic laws of arithmetic include the commutative, associative, and distributive properties. The commutative law states that changing the order of numbers in addition or multiplication doesn’t change the result (e.g., 3 + 2 = 2 + 3). The associative law says that grouping numbers differently in addition or multiplication also doesn’t affect the outcome (e.g., (2 + 3) + 4 = 2 + (3 + 4)). The distributive law explains how multiplication interacts with addition: multiplying a number by a sum is the same as multiplying each addend separately and then adding (e.g., 3 × (4 + 5) = 3×4 + 3×5).