Three elements, and of a set are said to be associative under a binary operation if they satisfy

(1)

Real numbers are associative under addition

(2)

and multiplication

(3)

TheWolfram Language attribute thatsets a function to be associative isFlat.

See also

Explore with Wolfram|Alpha

More things to try:

• right triangle
• (2*3)*4 - 2*(3*4)
• (a*b)*c - a*(b*c)

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Associative." FromMathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Associative.html

Subject classifications