Why are hex head bolts hex rather than Octagonal (or square?)

No, but I think I got this week's Puzzler nailed....

Leave the radiator cap loose. And stuff a large sized Tootsie Roll through the slit in the heater hose. IIRC those candies were about 3/4" dia x 6" long.

Jeff

at the crystalline leve, there may be a lot of hex sided rocks.

jim rozen wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@drn.newsguy.com:

Google the 'giants causeway'..

"John Martin" wrote: If the heads were Octagonal, they'd be called Octangonal bolts. Similarly square heads are called Square head bolts. It follows that hex head bolts have hexagonal heads.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Best

Adjustable wrench

Will

Because halos are a corona effect.

So they fit six and twelve point sockets... Why else ;-)

Think of the expense of everyone having to buy five-sided sockets, or some other goofy configuration.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Should be named circular bolts, since they were named using circular logic.

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I take it you mean "regular" then. (double negatives and all that stuff) ...lew...

Just the bolt or both? Sound like a neet thing to do. I'll have to try it. ...lew...

Yes but are they "natural" ? I suspect they are "liberals". DUCKING and running. :-) ...lew...

PS. I think columnar basalt is hexagonal, or at least some of it. ...lew...

Possibly, but a *very* close inspection of the NY/NJ Pallisades does not show any hexagons. Maybe the crystallographic form is hexagonal, but it does not show up in the cliffs anywhere.

Jim

ALL naturally occurring quartz crystals are hexagonal in cross-section...

Probably because it was the first shape that could be used with existing tools and tooling. Of course now there are so many different head designs and sizes used it can be a bother to buy tools to fit. Between US inch, Metric, Chinese metric, Whitworth, and British Standard that should be enough. BUT nope we have every type of external and internal drive thought up as well. Example is the 94 GM Blazer I'm working on. It has both US inch and Metric sizes, Hex, Internal Hex, Torx and external torx, Philips, Straight slot, Push nuts, and a few others.

So is there actually a different standard in China, or by "Chinese Metric" do you mean Chinese POS equipment that never works right?

I've seen them -- quartz crystals, as well as some other crystalline materials.

There is that. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

No, that's the chips. Maybe would have been more obvious if the OP had written "... hexagon IN a circle ...".

-jc-