Static wicks?

Question

I know that there are pointed staick wicks on the wings of an airplane, the wicks help the airplane get ridd of any charge build up into the surronding air. But why does the wick need to be pointed and not blunt????

Answer 1

To shed the electrons more efficiently.

Answer 2

The two answers above are touching (no pun intended) on the correct answer, but not hitting the nail on the head.  The reason the static wicks are pointy is so that the electric field is more intense at the tip.  A more intense field allows charge dissipation to occur more easily, which is what you want.  If the wick were blunt, more charge would build up before the voltage built up high enough to discharge it back to the atmosphere.

Answer 3

Electrons tend to move to and from pointed objects.  They tend to remain on

smooth round surfaces (like the globes on a Van de Graf generator).  We do

not want a charge to build up between buildings and clouds until a sudden

discharge can do great damage.  Instead, by applying a pointed lightning rod

the charge is dissipated slowly keeping the electrical potential difference

low