The Archer's Paradox

The term "Archer's Paradox" was labeled in the mid 1930s by Dr. Robert P. Elmer, a well-known archery writer. It concerned the question as to why an arrow would hit a target when, from all appearances when placed on the bow, it should strike to the left.

After a number of tests on shooting machines by several individuals and using the high-speed camera of Dr. Clarence Hickman, resultant slow-motion movies at 6600 frames per second produced the following sequence that shows the initial flight of a correctly-spined arrow from a well-designed bow. (A right-handed shooter is assumed)

At full draw the arrow shaft is pointing at the target. The string, left side of the bow and the target are lined up.
When the drawn bowstring is released, a compressive force is applied thru the nock down the length of the arrow. In addition, for a three-finger release, there is a force away from the fingers, pushing the string and narrow nock to the left. The string then snaps back to the right, pulling toward the center of the bow. This action jerks the point to the left as it deflects off the bow. As the arrow passes about 1/3 of its way down the bow, it buckles even more, due to the pressure of the string and its flexibility, causing the arrow shaft to push the arrow rest slightly right.
Then the arrow bounces back away from the arrow rest a fraction of an inch and should never touch it again.
The inertia of the arrow point resists the leftward movement but the center of the arrow doesn't. Thus, the point moves around toward the front of the bow , causing the arrow to curve back around the arrow rest.
When the arrow leaves the string (which has been dragging the nock to the right (toward the bow), the nock reacts by snapping back to the left. The point, in reaction to the nock snap, moves back to the left again. As the feathers pass the bow, the point is back in line with the target.
As the nock end leaves the bow, it comes back in line, while the center of the arrow bends to the right.
The arrow straightens out and the center keeps bending to the left, but not as much as before.
The point and nock ends stay almost in line while the center of the arrow continues to vibrate back and forth, though less and less each time.

An arrow must be spined correctly to oscillate at just the right frequency to "bend around" the bow. If it is too limber it will strike to the right of the target center. If it is too stiff it will strike to the left of the target center.