Answer:
Let's say we have the numbers 6 4 and 2.
According to the associative property of addition it should not matter how we group these numbers when we subtract them. However let's see what happens when we apply the associative property to this example:
(6 - 4) - 2 = 2 - 2 = 0
6 - (4 - 2) = 6 - 2 = 4
As we can see the result of the subtraction is different depending on how we group the numbers. According to the associative property the result should be the same regardless of the grouping but in this case it is not. Therefore we can conclude that the associative property does not hold true for the subtraction of whole numbers.