Commutative Property of Multiplication
Commutative property of multiplication:
What does it mean?
It means, that order of numbers doesn't matter.
Indeed, as can be seen from illustration, we can count there are 3 circles in a row, and there are 2 rows, so total number of squares is .
From another side, we can rotate picture and count circles in another way: 3 rows, and in each row 2 circles: .
Warning: it doesn't work with division, i.e. .
For example, .
However, commutative property of multiplication works for negative numbers (in fact, for real numbers) as well.
Example 1. .
Example 2. .
Example 3. .
Conclusion. So, the basic rule here is following: whenever you see multiplication, you can interchange factors.