THE PHYSICS OF

ARCHERY
By Kate Bassett, Naomi Burnell,
Jeanne Case, and Josh Walker

The Bow
The Bow is a basic
machine called a twoarm spring.
When an arrow is drawn
back the bow stores
mechanical potential
energy in the part that
bends.

Draw Weight
The force that the
archer applies to the
bow is called the
Draw Weight. This
force bends the limbs
of the bow and adds
elastic potential
energy. Thus, the
bow is like a spring
that stores the energy
to put into the arrow.
W = 2F (cos) (cos)

Draw Length-

the distance of the offset from the initial

position of the string

The Draw Weight

(W) is directionally
proportional to the
Draw Length (x),
thus this follows
Hookes Law.
Hooke's LawDeformation of an
object (the limbs of
the bow curving
back) is
proportional to the

Potential Energy
Usually you can
use E = Fx / 2 to
find the potential
energy but
because the bow is
thicker in the
middle than at the
ends you need to
use E = eFx / 2
where e is the
efficiency. You
divide by two

Transferring Energy
When the arrow is released if all of the
potential energy becomes kinetic
energy. (ET = EK )
You can use mav2 = eFx
(Conservation of Energy)because the
kinetic energy is what gives the arrow its
velocity. (ma=mass of arrow)

WHAT IS DRY FIRING?

Dry firing is releasing the drawn
bow string without a knocked
arrow.
If the bow is dry fired all of the
kinetic energy stays in the
bow instead of transferring into
the arrow.
Because the bow was not
made to handle this much
energy it can crack, fracture
and brake.
Though the bow does use some

Archers
Paradox
The archers paradox is
the flexing of the arrow
as it flies toward its
target. The arrow needs
to have just the right
amount of flexibility,
also called spine, to flex
and then flex back
toward its target.
A video of this
phenomenon can be
found at
http://youtu.be/wGNslU
NBrEM
And
http://youtu.be/WzWrcp
zuAp8

Spine
If the arrow is too
stiff, not enough
spine, it will go off to
the side the arrow
head is pointing to. If
it has too much
spine, or flexibility,
then the arrow will be
deformed to much
and go to the other
side.

Hitting the Target

Without air resistance the
following formulas can be
used:
Range: dx= (vi2 sin2) / g
Max Height: dy= (vi2
sin) / 2g
Where:
vi is the initial velocity of
the arrow calculated with
(eFx/ma)
ma is the mass of the arrow
and g is gravity.

Why we Chose
Archery:
What We Learned
Uses many of the
Hookes Law
concepts we learned
Having 2 limbs effects
in class.
the calculations for
Kinetic Energy
energy and draw
Potential Energy
weight
Conservation of Energy
How the conservation
Calculations of initial
of energy is bad for a
velocity, the distance
bow when dry fired
an arrow travels (x and
y), weight, Force,
The spine or stiffness
kinetic and potential
of an arrow creates
energy.
the Archers Paradox

Your Challenge Should You

Chose to Accept it:

Go to:
http://archeryphysics-mrsmith08.aw
ardspace.com/bored.html
Use your Physics knowledge to
master the art of shooting a bow and
arrow with a mouse!

Works Cited

http://www.archeryhuntingequipment.com/exclusivecontent/physics
-of-archery
http://www.mrfizzix.com/archery/
http://archeryphysics-mrsmith08.awardspace.com/

Videos:

http://youtu.be/wGNslUNBrEM
http://youtu.be/WzWrcpzuAp8

Game:
http://archeryphysics-mrsmith08.awardspace.com/bored.html