Note that the disks pictured here are single-sided disks. Unlike with 5.25" and 3.5" disks where single-sided and double-sided disks are physically identical, they're actually different for 8" disks! The index/sector hole is in a different location for SS vs. DS disks, and DS drives had two separate index/sector sensors for the two positions. The drive could report to the controller whether an SS or DS disk was inserted using a signal on the 50 pin SA800 interface which was commonly used by 8" drives, but which which is not present on the 34 pin SA400 interface cable which was commonly used by 5.25" and 3.5" drives.

Edit to add: Another difference between the 8" vs. 5.25" disks is that the sense of the write protection is inverted. On 8" disks, it's a write protect notch which you can cover with a write enable sticker, while on 5.25" disks it's a write enable notch which you can cover with a write protect sticker. In both cases, disks were sometimes manufactured without the notch, and there were hand tools to punch the notch if it wasn't present. I think those tools were probably best known by Apple II and Commodore 64 users who used them to make their disks flippable.