**Associative Property of Addition for Rational Numbers**

The associative property of addition states that when three or more numbers are added, the grouping of the addends does not affect the sum. In other words, changing the grouping of the addends will not change the result of the addition.

**Example:**

(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)

**Verification of Associative Property for Rational Numbers**

Let us verify the associative property of addition for the following sets of rational numbers:

-7/8, -3/4, and -1/2

To verify the associative property, we need to add the given rational numbers in two different ways and check if they give the same result.

First, let us add the rational numbers by grouping the first two numbers and then adding the third number:

(-7/8 + -3/4) + (-1/2) = (-14/16 - 12/16) - 8/16 = -34/16

Now, let us add the rational numbers by grouping the last two numbers and then adding the first number:

(-7/8) + (-3/4 + -1/2) = -7/8 - 12/16 = -28/16

As we can see, the two results are not the same. Therefore, the associative property of addition does not hold for the given set of rational numbers.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the associative property of addition does not hold for the given set of rational numbers.

Associative property= (a+b)+c=a+(b+c)
{-7/8+(-3/4)}+-1/2=-7/8+{-3/4+(-1/2)}
(-7/8-3/4)-1/2=-7/8+(-3/4-1/2)
(-7-6/8)-1/2=-7/8+(-3-2/4)
(-13/8-1/2)=(-7/8-5/4)
-13-4/8=-10-7/8
-17/8=-17/8
Thus,Associative property of addition is verified.