Jack Painter wrote:
"Scientists have now shown that blunt-tipped air terminals are attached
by lightning significantly higher frequency than sharp rods are."

I would have expected that sharp-pointed rods would be struck more
often.

My CRC "Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" starts its coverage of
"Electricity and Magneyism with a page on Spark Gap Voltages. In every
case for a given breakdown voltage, the gap must be substantially wider
when the electrodes are needle-points than when they are spheres. For
example: With a voltage across the electrodes of 5 KV, the gap space
between needle-points needed to prevent a spark is 0.42 cm. The gap
between 5-cm sphheres is 0.15 cm under the same conditions. Much closer
before sparking points obviously means sharp points engourage breakdown
of the air between the points, while spherical (blunt) spark-gap
electrodes discourage the spark.

It`s been said that if the chsrges dont pile op at the pointed end of a
conductor, it would not have an equipotential surface as is required by
the conductivity ("College Physics" by Franklin Miller, Jr.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI