The associative laws are simple rules in logic which state that the order of operations in sets of and (∧) and or (∨) operations may be reversed without consequence. That is to say that "P and (Q and R)" is equivalent to "(P and Q) and R" while "P or (Q or R)" is equivalent to "(P or Q) or R".
These laws may be expressed formally as:
(α ∧ β) ∧ γ 
α ∧ (β ∧ γ)
…and:
(α ∨ β) ∨ γ α ∨ (β ∨ γ)
