Arrow Speed for Accuracy - info source needed.

[Quadratus]

The Ki Sik Lee website shows, as JohnKR says, the importance of consistency, not of speed.

I have mentored, marked and assessed many final year projects/dissertations (not to mention MSc and PhD submissions) and you are absolutely right to look for properly referenced, reliable evidence. The problem is that you are not going to find any that holds water, as greater speed = greater accuracy is simply not true. At best you will find anecdote and speculation, and for your purposes that is not good enough on its own.

Your best bet would be to steer well clear of the subject, as it doesn't sound like the core of your work, and deal with the other, important uses of a chrono - increasing consistency, measuring arrow speed as an element of energy (ie tuning and penetration) calculations and helping determination of optimum set-up and tuning, but not speed = accuracy.

Good luck with your project.

[dino1300]

You could argue that for any given arrow weight that going faster will be more accurate than going slower, but only because it removes the effect of external influences i.e. Wind.

A heavy arrow absorbs more energy than a light arrow, as it has longer to absorb it, therefore the efficiency increases.

If a Heavy arrow and light arrow start at the same speed, then the heavy one should stay on track better, as it is harder for the wind to deflect it.

But the faster the arrow, the more effect that wind friction and drag have, hence the previous comment about the profile of the arrow. Look at the drag of cars. It takes more energy to go from 50 to 60 than from 40 to 50.

So you could use a chrono for the shot to shot consistency issue. If you shot 30 arrows through the chrono and plotted the height of impact v speed, you should get a correlation between the two.

Good luck.

[Joester]

I've had a proper read of the KSL link, and of quadratus' post, and I've changed my mind.
I made a mistake.
My report has been modified to speak specifically about consistency of shot speed, rather than the actual speed itself, being of importance.

In retrospect, I suppose if your sight is in the right place, it doesn't matter how fast or slow the arrow is going.

Doh!

Thanks again guys.

[Random_guy]

Hmmm, i could be talking rubbish (will have to go and do some mechanics to work out if i am, and i *hate* mechanics) but.....

taking vertical variation only, if you have a projectile of a given weight, with a given standard deviation in angle of projection from horizontal, are people suggesting that the deviation at another point in the path of the projectile will be independant of the initial accelaration? I doubt it, as the initial acceleration will have a vertical component.... but like i said i'd have to do some mechanics to work it out, and pure maths is so much nicer....

[Quadratus]

Yes of course a slower arrow will, all other things being equal, diverge more from the horizontal. But at anything we can call 'normal' arrow speeds, ie neither parachuting or breaking the sound barrier, the fall will be just as predictable and the accuracy just the same.

In practice, all other things being equal I, and I suspect most other archers would rather shoot a fast arrow than a slow one. But all other things never are equal and right now we are seeing top archers like Marcus deliberately opting for heavier, and therefore slower arrows, not to mention that the slower X10's have long been favoured over the faster ACE's by many.

Speed is just one element of a complex trade-off along with inertia, drag, profile and goodness knows how many more. My post was specifically trying to help Joester, and I stick to my advice not to weaken his position by using a dubious argument, when there are so many incontrovertible ones.

[Duss]

One good argument for shooting a fast arrow, especially outdoors and at long distances is for the archer NOT to shoot his sight ring

Past a certain angle the arrow will also hinder the view of the sight ring.

[rod]

Originally Posted by Duss

One good argument for shooting a fast arrow, especially outdoors and at long distances is for the archer NOT to shoot his sight ring

Past a certain angle the arrow will also hinder the view of the sight ring.

the longrod angle will hinder the veiw far sooner than the arrow, unless you are shooting barebow

[Duss]

Originally Posted by rod

the longrod angle will hinder the veiw far sooner than the arrow, unless you are shooting barebow

Right as well, and it depends on the arrow length, stabilizer length, etc.

Yet my problems always have been with the arrow, not the stabilizer.