The associative property of addition is a property which allows terms in an addition expression to be "switched around." For example, the addition property says that the following two expressions are equal:
[tex]5 + (4 + 3)[/tex]
[tex](5 + 4) + 3[/tex]
Applying this to this problem, we can move the parentheses to cover the 2 + 11 to make a new expression, as shown below:
[tex]2 + (11 + y) = (2 + 11) + y[/tex]
A new expression could be (2 + 11) + y.
