Bow

The bow is a weapon that can shoot arrows to kill mobs and players from a greater distance than melee weapons like the sword.

Using the bow
To use a bow, it must be the active item and there must be arrows somewhere in the player's inventory; they do not need to be on the action bar. Simply right-click to use the bow, which will shoot the arrows. Holding right-click will pull back the string and send the arrow flying faster/further when released. Pulling the string back all the way releases an arrow with a sparkling effect, causing more damage. The Bow also shakes when fully charged -presumably from the tension of the bow- although it seems to not affect your aim. While the bow is being pulled back, the player will be forced to move at sneak speed.

It should be noted that the bow is very effective at killing powerful foes from afar, such as Ghasts, Skeletons, Creepers, Spiders, Cave Spiders and Spider Jockey: all of which either use ranged attacks, or are dangerous in close proximity. Endermen cannot be killed by arrows, or any projectile for that matter (except splash potions thrown near them), because they teleport when they are hit and won't take damage from it.

As arrows are affected by gravity, they shoot in a parabolic arc. This is hardly noticeable at close range, but becomes more apparent with greater distance. One must aim above mobs at a certain distance, or gain higher ground to effectively neutralize the target. Some players have noticed a slight rightward tendency of shot arrows, although this is speculative.

A fully charged arrow consistently deals damage, with a rare chance of dealing. This means that 2 fully charged arrows are often required to kill most passive mobs, while 3 are often required to kill most hostiles.

Arrows that cause no damage to targets (i.e.: when you miss) will become stuck in the block they hit. You are able to re-collect these arrows. Bows in creative mode will always shoot an arrow, even if you have none in your inventory. Also, be careful when destroying blocks with arrows stuck in them, as falling arrows also cause damage(as of this, one can make an arrow bomb by shooting a couple of arrows on the top of tnt then blowing the TNT up) Also, an arrow reaches 65 blocks upwards, and it fires with a speed of 26m/s.

The bow can be enchanted, and may be a drop from skeletons.

History
In Survival Test, the player did not need a bow to shoot arrows. Instead, was used to fire arrows. However, arrows still had to be collected to shoot. Launching arrows this way was much slower than the bow now fires them. As of the Beta 1.2 update, bows are used in the dispenser block crafting recipe, presumably for propulsion/dispensing.

A working bow was added in Indev 0.31 (January 22, 2010), and became craftable in Indev 0.31 (January 30, 2010).

Before the Seecret Friday update 7 (1.0.14), the recipe for arrows used iron instead of flint, proving far more costly to make them.

In previous versions, if a player shot him or herself with an arrow, any tamed wolves that belonged to that player would attack him or her, as the tame wolf(ves) are "trained" to attack anything or anyone that harms the player.

Before Beta 1.8, the right mouse button could be held down to fire in rapid succession. Each arrow dealt for each hit. They would fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water and would travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also had a maximum range of around 52 blocks when fired at a 38 degree angle on a flat plane.

Previous to 1.8, bows often failed to interact with objects, but would instead shoot. This was a pain when trying to open doors, interact with a Wolf, etc. This was due to the fact that shooting arrows was an instantaneous action. Now that players are required to 'charge' their bow, this is no longer as much of a problem.

As of 1.0, a fully charged arrow consistently deals damage, with a rare chance of dealing.

As of release 1.0, bows have a durability. Bows do not need arrows for ammo in Creative Mode.

The bow could be enchanted in 1.0.0 via console commands, but no spell would affect it. Bows can now be legitimately enchanted in Minecraft 1.1. Currently, there are 4 enchantments: Flame (shoots fire arrows from bow itself, and is same as passing through lava), Punch (same as Knockback for Sword), Power (same as Sharpness for Sword) and Infinity (gives infinite shots with a single arrow, until the bow breaks).

Since snapshot 12w06a, Skeletons have a 2.5% chance of dropping a bow. One fifth of the time, this bow will be enchanted with Power I (20%).

Trivia

 * Tilling grass when an arrow is on it causes the arrow to fall to the block below.
 * When an arrow is shot at a painting, the painting will break and the arrow despawns, since paintings are entities.
 * If an arrow is shot at wheat and then the wheat is destroyed, the arrow falls through the farmland block below it.
 * Arrows can trigger wooden pressure plates if there is a particle effect source nearby.
 * Shooting a Ghast, Giant or a large Slime with an arrow will cause the stuck arrow to appear huge.
 * When fully charged, arrows will leave a trail of orange-white particles to represent critical hit.
 * Arrows shot through lava will set mobs on fire.
 * If TNT is blown up just as an arrow passes by, the arrow is directed opposite of the blast.
 * Arrows will slow down if shot through water.
 * If the player fires an arrow at an Enderman, the arrow will disappear, and the Enderman will teleport away. Sometimes an Enderman seems to be "stuck" and will not teleport himself. In such (and quite rare) situations the arrow will not disappear, but it is reflected back to the player instead. If the flame enchantment is present,the arrow will not damage it, as mentioned above,but will set the Enderman on fire,damaging,and making it hostile.
 * Arrows are not washed away by water flowing over them. If water is poured over arrows on the floor the arrows will make a splashing noise as if they are hitting the water.

Bugs

 * In creative mode, when a bow breaks, it will appear as if it was replaced by a new bow, but trying to use it will cause it to disappear.
 * Also in singleplayer mode, when a bow breaks, it will appear as if it was replaced by a new bow. You can still shoot arrows, but trying to use it (e.g. opening doors while holding the bow) will cause it to disappear. Verified by version 1.2.5.
 * The trail of orange particles (see above) is not rendered in multiplayer.
 * If you have Tiny or Short rendering distance and fire outside of the render, the arrow will be stuck in midair.
 * If an arrow is shot into a block by a player and the game is exited the arrow can no longer be picked up by the player when the game is re-entered. This also happens with arrows shot before dying.
 * Arrows can suddenly lose momentum when it hits the smoke of a dying mob.
 * Arrows in multiplayer will seem to teleport to the top edge of the block above the one its stuck on.
 * Lit arrows (that have gone through lava) will disappear immediately once it enters the Void while normal arrows fired by the player do not immediately disappear.
 * Shooting an Enderman with an Enchanted bow with the flame enchantment will still cause the Enderman to light on fire, even though the arrow doesn't stick. You can light multiple Endermen on fire with this, but you may pre-anger the Enderman(men) before you hit it.
 * If you are sprinting then quickly launch an arrow at the block in front of the player with no charging on the bow, you will take damage from the arrow.
 * In creative SMP servers you cannot pick up arrows after they have been shot.
 * Shooting an arrow straight up in the air in creative will cause the arrow to bounce infinitely untill it bounces off the player's head.