Dan had some candy to give his five children. he first took eight pieces for himself and then evenly divided the rest among his children. each child received four pieces. with how many pieces did he start?

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.