Longbow
A longbow is a type of bow that is tall (roughly equal to the height of the person who uses it); this will allow its user a fairly long draw, at least to the jaw (the average length of arrowshafts recovered from the 1545 sinking of the Mary Rose is 75 cm/30 in). A longbow is not significantly recurved. Its limbs are relatively narrow so that they are D-shaped in cross section.
Flatbow
Flatbows are similar to Longbows and can be just as long; the difference is that, in cross-section, a flatbow has limbs that are approximately rectangular.
Recurve bow
A recurve bow has tips that curve away from the archer when the bow is unstrung. By one technical definition, the difference between recurve and other bows is that the string touches sections of the limbs of recurve bows when the bow is strung. A recurve bow stores more energy than an equivalent straight-limbed bow, potentially giving a greater amount of cast to the arrow.
Recurve bows made out of composite materials were used by, among other groups, the Scythians, Hyksos, Magyars, Huns, Greeks, Turks, Mongols, and Chinese.
Compound bow
A compound bow is a modern bow that uses a levering system, usually of cables and pulleys, to bend the limbs. The limbs of a compound bow are usually much stiffer than those of a recurve bow or longbow. This limb stiffness makes the compound bow more energy-efficient than other bows, but the limbs are too stiff to be drawn comfortably with a string attached directly to them. The compound bow has its string attached to pulleys (cams), and one or both of the pulleys have one or more cables attached to the opposite limb. When the string is drawn back, the string causes the pulleys to turn. This causes the pulleys to pull the cables, which in turn causes the limbs to bend and thus store energy. The use of this levering system gives the compound bow a characteristic draw-force curve which rises to a peak weight and then "lets off" to a lower holding weight.
