About Joe's article multiplication is not commutative

[Paul Berger (Canada)]

(01-31-2014 02:38 PM)Han Wrote:  

(01-31-2014 02:25 PM)Paul Berger (Canada) Wrote:  The property you are describing is associative, so I found with a bit of quick research earlier, and yes multiplication is associative. (3x2)x5 = 3x(2x5) but it breaks on calculators because of the limits of precision and that I think is the point of Joe's article.

...which suggests the title "Multiplication is not associative" is more fitting than "Multiplication is not commutative"

Well from what I read if a function commutative it means you can change the order of the terms without changing the result, which is what Joe's example seems to be doing. My example above illustrates the associative property. I am not a maths expert by any means so if any of the maths teachers out wish to jump in feel free. I found my answers by googling "associative maths" and reading some of the results.