Quote Originally Posted by SMZ
actually that's exactly what SMZ meant

the point was that wood was not as readily available as bone, horn and sinew... the point was not that the Mongols had never heard of the amazing substance known as wood - far enough back in history, everybody used self bows, the idea was that you get something springy and it will propel an arrow.... it wasn't until later that people began figuring out that substances which were hard to bend made even better devices for propeling missiles
Aaaand we're back to the bone+silk spears, then. If there long pieces of wood weren't readily available, they must have been using those, innit ?

In ancient times they started using wooden composite bows because they were better pound for pound, and easier to handle (and make) than longer plain bows, especially on horseback. They switched to bone ones when they realized those worked even better. I agree that the first bone bows must have sprung up out of necessity rather than bow field efficiency research, but they stuck overtime because of said efficiency, I think.

true, but proper care of the weapon could and did prevent such untimely mishaps... some soldiers let their swords rust too... that didn't make the English go back to bronze weapons - early firearms were very difficult to operate in wet conditions, that didn't make the English stick with their longbows - your point is nonexistent
It's not a "misshap" when it just doesn't work. If the glue cannot hold and react the right way, you're left with a silly looking bow that is even less powerful than a plain bow of the same size.
Early English firearms didn't work in the rain, that much is true, but firearms didn't work in the rain for the French either.
On the other hand, if you can't use your funny bows in the rain, yet the enemy can use his normal, less powerful bows just fine, I imagine your enthusiasm for them funny bows is somewhat dampened (excuse the pun).

The English (and French, and Italians etc...) certainly knew about composite bows. The Huns had invaded Europe centuries earlier and used composite bows. The Magyar tribes who became the Hungarians also did. Why would Christendom pass up on usable superior tech ?

You don't need special physics. Normal ones will suffice. The force of the weapon is expended in the upward flight, once it starts coming down, you're just using gravity. A steel crossbow has much greater intial force than a longbow, we can agree on this. However, by firing up into the air you waste all of that extra force. Once the missiles begin coming down, they are going to be gaining momentum and velocity at the same speed...

Won't an arrow shot upwards behave exactly the same ? Factoring air resistance out, anything thrown up will come back down with exactly the same amount of force it had going up.

To hit the same spot with a bow and a crossbow in an arc, the crossbowman will have to use a much steeper angle, and that means more friction, a loss in accuracy (due to wind and tumbling) and a change in the target's aspect making him even harder to hit.

The bolt sure will lose much of its original power/momentum to friction, but that won't make it any harmless. Less powerful, sure. Won't pierce metal anymore. But the terminal velocity of a crossbow bolt is not that far from that of an arrow, and is probably still downright dangerous, if only you could get it to hit anything reliably