Why was gutenberg's printing press such an important invention? a paper had become too expensive. b explorers were able to navigate more easily. c books could be printed faster and easier. d merchants could sell their goods for more money.

His printing press has been widely considered the most important invention of the modern era because it profoundly impacted the transmission of knowledge. To answer your question, it was because books could be printed faster and easier because they used to have to be written by hand.

C. Books could be printed faster and easier.

  5.   y=6; de=7; fg=8

  6.   x=4.2; jl=14.2; mn=13

step-by-step explanation:

when chords cross inside a circle, the product of the segment lengths is a constant.

5. dh×eh = fh×gh

  y = gh = dh×eh/fh = 3×4/2 . . . divide by the coefficient of gh

  y = 6

of course, the total chord length is the sum of the lengths of its segments.

  de = dh +eh = 3+4 = 7

  fg = fh +gh = 2+6 = 8

6. this problem works the same way as the previous one.

  x = lk = mk×nk/jk = 6×7/10 = 4.2

  jl = jk +lk = 10 +4.2 = 14.2

  mn = mk +nk = 6 +7 = 13

comment on chords and secants

you can think of the points h (problem 5) and k (problem 6) as points where the chords meet. a chord is part of a secant line, a line that intersects the circle in two points. one can also consider these points (h or k) to be the points where the respective secant lines meet.

then, the product that is a constant is the product of the distance from the meeting point (h or k) to one circle intersection with the distance from that meeting point to the other circle intersection. for problem 5, the constant is the product hd×he = hf×hg.

it turns out that this rule regarding the products of lengths to points of intersection is also true when the secants intersect outside the circle.

that is, you only need to remember one rule to work both kinds of problems.

in geometry, parallel lines are lines in a plane which do not meet; that is, two lines in a plane that do not intersect or touch each other at any point are said to be parallel. by extension, a line and a plane, or two planes, in three-dimensional euclidean space that do not share a point are said to be parallel.