use the associate property of multiplication to write an equivalent expression.
12(xy)

Question

anonymous · Answer

Do you recall what the associative property says?

anonymous · Answer

i know they will involve three or more numbers

amistre64 · Answer

to associate means to group together; we can group these together in a different way, but it still stays the same value...

amistre64 · Answer

hint:  move the paranthesis so that it groups another 2 numbers

anonymous · Answer

(12)xy

amistre64 · Answer

good thought, nice effort; if 1 and 2 were meant to be seperate numbers that would have been great :)

anonymous · Answer

Basically you can re-associate the factors of a product any way you like and you will have the same value:

$$a(bc) = a\times b \times c = (ab)c$$

amistre64 · Answer

but 12 here means the number 12 :)

anonymous · Answer

12.x.y or 12.x(y)

anonymous · Answer

(12x)y