A martial arts studio offers beginner and advanced lessons. The
beginner lessons cost $7 less than
half the cost of the advanced
classes. Mrs. Turner paid for 4
beginner classes and 3 advanced
classes and spent $118. Let x be the
cost of the beginner classes and y be
the cost of the advanced classes.

This law is sometimes called the grouping property. as you can see, regardless of how the numbers are grouped, the answer is still 13. the associative law of multiplication is similar to the same law for addition. it says that no matter how you group numbers you are multiplying together, you will get the same answer.