Question

Santa seated his guests so that X number of people sat at each of Y number of tables. Mrs. Claus placed Y number of people at each table, but she had X number of tables. Compare the number of guests Santa and Mrs. Claus were able to seat. ​

Answer 1

they are the same

Explanation:

The number of guests seated were, in each case, ...

(guests per table) × (number of tables)

__

For Santa, this product is ...

X × Y

For Mrs. Claus, this product is ...

Y × X

The commutative property of multiplication tells you that ...

XY = YX

The numbers of guests were the same.