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.

It should be noted that the bow is very effective at killing powerful foes from afar, such as Ghasts, Skeletons, and Creepers, all of which either use ranged attacks, or are extremely dangerous in a close proximity to the player.

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.

Arrows
Arrows can be fired from a distance and in rapid succession. They will fly in a parabola (arc) and will travel approximately 15 blocks when fired parallel to a flat plane. Arrows also can be fired underwater by a Skeleton and will have greatly reduced speed and range. The arrows will also leave a trail of bubbles in its wake. Arrows have a maximum range of around 50 blocks when fired at a 45 degree angle on a flat plane. Arrows deal two hearts of damage if they successfully hit the target.

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 disappear. 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 appear to travel approximately 25 blocks before falling.

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. It is rumored that burning arrows are planned by Notch as a craftable recipe. Burning arrows have a luminance of 1.

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

A stack of 4 can be crafted via a combination of Flint, Sticks and Feathers.

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.

Arrows and Circuits
While arrows shot at Switches or Pressure Plates will not trigger said inputs directly, workarounds can be used to trigger circuits from a distance. For instance, a cart can be used in such a way that destroying it with arrows causes a circuit to activate.

Trivia

 * Arrows cannot break Glass.
 * Arrows do not travel farther in the Nether.
 * Tilling grass when an arrow is on it causes the arrow to fall to the block below.

Bogen