Which of the following is a property of addition?

The commutative property is a fundamental characteristic of addition that states that changing the order of the addends does not change the sum. In mathematical terms, this can be expressed as ( a + b = b + a ). This property emphasizes that, regardless of how the numbers are arranged during the addition process, the final result will remain the same.

Understanding the commutative property is essential for simplifying calculations and for solving equations efficiently. It is particularly useful in mental math since it allows you to rearrange numbers in a way that makes the addition easier. In contrast, the other properties listed—distributive, identifying, and associative—address different aspects of arithmetic operations: the distributive property involves multiplication over addition, the identifying property typically refers to the concept of an identity element, and the associative property involves grouping of numbers rather than their order. Each property serves a unique purpose in mathematics, but in this case, the commutative property specifically pertains to addition.