"Bryan" wrote in message
ups.com...
Whilst thinking about another problem, I find myself wondering, "why is
it that bolts have hex heads rather than octagonal or some other
number?"

Is there some wisdom about the history of this?


First off, ( and most obvious ) if it had anything other than 6 faces,
wouldn't make much sense at all to call it a "hex"......


Eight points tend to strip too easily...

And at some point, needing to tighten fully to 90 degres in order to be able
to reposition a wrench was apparently too much for design engineers...


I kinda like the NAS style aircraft fasteners, personally.....

--

SVL