# Communicative Property of Multiplication – Definition With Examples

## What Is the Commutative Property of Multiplication in Math?

Commutative comes from the word “commute”, which can be defined as moving around or traveling. According to the commutative property of multiplication, changing the order of the numbers we are multiplying does not change the product.

Let’s understand this with an example.

Example of Commutative Property of Multiplication

Place 3 bricks in a row.

Now place another row of bricks above this row.

Repeat this process 4 times.

Now count the number of bricks used.

Total bricks $=$ Number of rows $\times$ Number of bricks in each row

$= 4 \times 3$

$= 12$

Now, create a row by placing 4 bricks.

Place two more rows above this row.

Total bricks $=$ Number of rows $\times$ Number of bricks in each row

$= 3 \times 4$

$= 12$

We have observed that interchanging the number of rows with the number of bricks in each row does not change the total bricks needed.

## What Is Multiplication?

Multiplication is nothing but repeated addition. It is denoted by ‘*’, ‘.’ and ‘✕’.

Let’s see what is repeated addition with the help of given example:

Example: A monkey is jumping from one point to another. It covers one unit distance with every jump. How many units will it cover in 5 jumps?

Solution: From the above statement, we can say that 1 jump $= 1$ unit. Let’s look at this image.

So, we can see that monkey covers $1+1+1+1+1 = 5$ units

We can also write it as $1 \times 5 = 5$ units.

Now, observe that for each step, we need to add “1” in the previous one. That’s why we can say that multiplication is nothing but repeated addition.

Let’s go through another example.

Example: Robin wants to buy 3 bars of chocolate. Each bar costs $\$$10. How much money Robin needs to buy 3 bars? We can solve this problem using two different methods. Let’s look at both methods. Method 1: Number of chocolates \times Cost of Each Chocolate = 3 \times \$$ 10$=\$$30 Method 2 : Cost of Each Chocolate \times Number of chocolates = \$$ 10 $\times$ $3$