# Heptagon hubcaps
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 25, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512 "2000-09-25T21:01:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@don\_willard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_willard)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2000, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512/1 "2000-09-25T21:01:28Z")
Why do so many hubcaps have seven sides, especially since
the heptagon cannot be constructed with ruler and compass, so since it is so hard to make, why are so many made?
Also, is there any significance to the sequence of numbers of sides of polygons that cannot be made using merely ruler and compass? This sequence would start with 7 and go on.
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### Author:  [@LazarusLong42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LazarusLong42)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512/2 "2000-09-25T22:04:18Z")
[Go here](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ConstructiblePolygon.html).
I shan’t pretend to understand all the math, but a listing of those that _are_ constructible is better than a listing of those that aren’t.
LL
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2000, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512/3 "2000-09-26T02:08:06Z")
Also, car companies don’t use a compass and straightedge to design their hubcaps, and even with just those two tools, you can get close enough to a heptagon that it doesn’t matter. Maybe seven bolts is structurally stronger?
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2000, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heptagon-hubcaps/34512/4 "2000-09-26T10:42:09Z")
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- Of course, hubcaps are not held on with bolts. If you can see all the way through a car’s wheel, it likely doesn’t have hubcaps at all.
- I think they just do it because it is a trendy look right now. Years back the only custom wheels for American cars used 5-spoke designs almost exclusively. Also most custom wheels have the usual number of _bolts_, they just have different numbers of spokes.
- Only 3 bolts per wheel looks a bit daring to me. (Fiat? Citroen? Mini?) - MC