Commutativity

Alright kiddo, have you ever played with blocks? You can stack them up in different ways, right? Well, commutativity is like being able to move the order of the blocks and still have the same result.

For example, if you have three blocks and you stack them up in the order green, red, and blue:

🟩
🟥
🟦

You can switch the order around and have the same result:

🟥
🟩
🟦

See, it's still three blocks stacked in a different order, but you still have the same blocks.

Now, let's take that idea and apply it to numbers. Commutativity means that you can switch the order of numbers in a problem and still get the same answer.

So if we have the problem 2 + 3, we know that's the same as 3 + 2. Both problems add up to 5.

Similarly, multiplication is also commutative. So if we have 4 x 5, that's the same as 5 x 4. Both problems multiply to 20.

Commutativity is a fancy word, but it just means that you can switch things around and still have the same result. Just like you can play with your blocks in different orders and still have fun!