At the market, Joey buys 3 avocados for $0.40 each and 5 lemons for $0.40 each. The cashier in training rings up 3 × 0.40 and then 5 × 0.40 to get the total. The experienced cashier says to add the 3 plus 5 in his head and then ring up 8 × 0.40.
What property says that these two totals would be the same?
multiplicative identity associative property of multiplication distributive property commutative property of multiplication
Distributive law, in mathematics, the law relating the operations of multiplication and addition, stated symbolically, a(b + c) = ab + ac
According to distributive property multiplying the sum of two or more addends by a number will give the same result as multiplying each addend individually by the number and then adding the products together.