Practice Commutativity in Math

Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.

Quick Recap

A property where swapping the order of two operands does not change the result: a \ \star\ b = b\ \star\ a.

3 + 5 = 5 + 3 and 3 \times 5 = 5 \times 3. Swapping the order doesn't change the answer.

Example 1

easy
Show that \(6 + 9 = 9 + 6\). Does the order of adding matter?

Example 2

medium
Verify that \(4 \times 7 = 7 \times 4\) using a rectangular array. Explain what changes and what stays the same.

Example 3

easy
If \(13 + 27 = 40\), what is \(27 + 13\)? Explain without calculating.

Example 4

medium
Does commutativity work for subtraction? Check with \(10 - 3\) and \(3 - 10\).