Mateo begins his dive at sea level. He dives down 15 meters, and then rises up 4 meters. He dives again, going down 7 meters. Which equation models Mateo’s movements, and uses the commutative property?

A dive down is represented by a negative number, and a rise up by a positive number, so Mateo’s movements are –15, +4, and –7. The commutative property lets you change the order of the addends without changing their signs or values. Choice C reorders them as 4 + (–15) + (–7), so it correctly models the movements and uses the commutative property.

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