Bow

The bow is a weapon that can be crafted in Indev, Infdev, Alpha, and Beta.

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/farther 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, Endermen, Spiders, Cave Spiders and Spider Jockey all of which either use ranged attacks, or are dangerous in close proximity.

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.

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 wolves, 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 1.9, 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.

To get a better look at far away mobs and not waste arrows sniping from afar, simply hold "ctrl" for a bit of scope action. This key can also be used whenever outside of battle or without a bow in hand.

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. Also, be careful when destroying blocks with arrows stuck in them, as falling arrows also cause damage.

History
In Survival Test, the player did not need a bow to shoot arrows. Instead, the Tab key 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.

Before 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.

Arrows
Arrows provide ammunition for a bow, and can either be crafted or found as a common drop from skeletons. When fired. they will fly in a ballistic trajectory affected by gravity and drag in air or water and will travel approximately 3 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane with no charge, 15 blocks average with medium charge, and 24 blocks average with maximum charge. Arrows in water get much more drag than in air, and leave a trail of bubbles in their wake. As of 1.8 pre-release, arrows (with bow at full strength) can travel 120 blocks when fired from the optimal angle.

Arrows deal five hearts of damage when fully charged if they successfully hit the target,  if charged to medium, and  if not charged at all. Immediately after hitting the target, there is a cooldown during which the target will be immune to further arrow damage. Arrows hitting the mob in this state will lose all speed and drop to the ground. Before 1.8 the bow could fire as quickly as the button could be, which could be as low as one arrow every two ms.

Arrows will also stick into objects they come in contact with and will remain there for exactly a minute before disappearing; the distance from the object and the angle determine how far into the target the arrow will go. Arrows that have been fired by the player and stuck into terrain are retrievable and never break. Arrows that hit a target such as a mob will stick in the mob but cannot be recovered. Skeleton-fired arrows are special entities and cannot be collected.

They can bounce off entities like Minecarts and damage immune mobs. In multiplayer, if PvP is on, a player can hurt themselves if they run forward while shooting arrows while the server is lagging. It is also possible for players to damage themselves with their own arrows by firing one directly up and standing still. Arrows fired directly upward using a fully charged bow will fly so high that they disappear from view, but eventually fall. If that arrow lands on a block, and the player is directly beneath that block, then the player breaks that block, the arrow will fall and do one heart of damage to the player.

If the block in which an arrow is stuck in is destroyed or disappear (leaves), the arrow will fall and can injure the player or a mob.

Arrows shot through lava or fire will catch aflame and show an appropriate animation, though they will do no more damage nor will they set anything else on fire.

Arrows shot at Minecart track will stop the minecart from passing over that block until the arrow despawns or is collected.

Before the Beta version 1.2, Skeletons would only drop arrows when killed; they now have a chance of dropping both bones and arrows when killed.

If a bow is used to make a Dispenser, and arrows are loaded into it and then connected to a Redstone power source correctly, it will shoot and damage mobs, animals, and players by shooting or "Dispensing" arrows.

Arrows and Circuits
While arrows shot at Switches or Pressure Plates will not trigger said inputs directly (unless fired from a dispenser onto a pressure plate), workarounds can be used to trigger circuits from a distance. For instance, a minecart can be used in such a way that destroying it with arrows releases the wooden pressure plate it is resting on, or a painting can be shot off a wall and fall onto a wooden pressure plate to activate it. As of 1.8 and the increase of arrow damage, boats can be used as targets since a fully charged bow will break the boat in one shot.

Purple Arrows
During Survival Test Skeleton arrows were purple. The purple arrow texture can still be found in the minecraft.jar file, in the same file as the normal arrows, but is unused. "AS IT WOULD SEEM" - Notch quote.

Trivia

 * Even though Skeletons carry bows, they do not drop bows when killed.
 * Arrows (before Beta 1.6) stick in any block, even some non-solid ones. For example, they will stick in Torches, Sugar Cane, and Portals.
 * Tilling grass when an arrow is on it causes the arrow to fall to the block below.
 * Shooting an arrow through lava causes it to be set on fire, but the effect is purely visual.
 * When an arrow is shot at a painting, the painting will break and the arrow despawns.
 * If an arrow is shot at wheat and then the wheat is destroyed, the arrow falls through the farmland block below it.
 * If you have Tiny 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 will occasionally pass through blocks, particularly thin door blocks, due to the full length of the arrow passing over the block during one frame of physics simulation (the “tunneling” or “bullet through paper” problem).
 * Arrows can trigger wooden pressure plates if there is a particle effect source also nearby.
 * Arrows can suddenly lose momentum when it hits the smoke of a dying mob.
 * Arrows in SMP will seem to teleport to the top edge of the block above the one its stuck on.
 * 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.
 * Shooting a Ghast or a large Slime with an arrow will cause the stuck arrow to grow huge.
 * If you are moving forward or sprinting (not sneaking), and you shoot an arrow straight forward at the lowest charge power, the arrow WILL hit you.
 * Shot arrows can stick to the bottom of the lowest level of bedrock (they are stuck on a block in the Void).
 * Arrows on fire (that have gone through lava) will disappear immediately once it enters the Void while normal arrows fired by the player do not immediately disappear.
 * When fully charged, arrows will leave a trail of orange particles.

Bugs

 * The trail of orange particles (see above) is not rendered in multiplayer.