This can be shown with some easy examples:

a = 0.1 +  0.2 + 0.3 ;
b = 0.1 + (0.2 + 0.3);

sprintf('%.20f', a) % Display with 20 fractional places
sprintf('%.20f', b)

ans =
  0.60000000000000008882

ans =
  0.59999999999999997780

Multiplication examples:

c = 0.1 *  0.2 * 0.3 ;
d = 0.1 * (0.2 * 0.3);

sprintf('%.20f', c)
sprintf('%.20f', d)

ans =
0.00600000000000000099

ans =
0.00600000000000000012

By default gcc will not rearrange equations for optimal performance as this would change the accuracy. The GCC flag -ffast-math optimizes equations as if they were associative.

The examples shown here were found on Hacker News.