16 Jan
2009
16 Jan
'09
3:09 p.m.
2009/1/16 Andrew Coppin
Either way, wherever the description gets put, just saying "associativity means that (x + y) + z = x + (y + z)" is insufficient. Sure, that's the *definition* of what it is, but we should point out that "associativity means that the ordering of the operations does not affect the result" or something. Something that's intuitive. (The tricky part, of course, is explaining how associative /= commutative.)
How about "associativity means that how you pair up the operations does not affect the result"? Paul.