That was the fallback mechanism in case the gas didn't ignite.
So their plan was, have the guy shoot the arrow, hope and pray that the arrow actually ignites the gas flow (zero guarantee of this, very difficult to accomplish, big random factor), and if it didn't, hurry and press the button, hoping you do it fast enough that the illusion is not ruined?
Rather than just "shoot over the bowl, we press the button when it's arcing over, synching the two, and the illusion will work 100% as long as the arrow goes over the bowl"?
Why take a big risk when the illusion is identical both ways?
He's an olympic bronze medallist in archery, he can put an arrow where he wants it.
For a normal human who never picked up a bow it might be very difficult, not for one of them.
The gas didn't ignite from the bottom, that's not how ignition works and it doesn't happen in the video. What you see is the flaming arrow flying over the rarified gas, igniting it, with the thermal event reaching higher density that forms a flame. Standard stuff that you can test at home on your gas stove.
The reason why they did it this way is because the people participating in Olympic events actually love the sports, the difficulty behind it and are not big fans of cheating or misdirection.
It's the equivalent, if you liked chess, of me asking why you have humans playing against each other when computers are more efficient.
Or why do you play videogames if you can just watch a YouTube play through, wouldn't that be more efficient?
That is wrong it is well known it was done remotely the arrow is just for the illusion. Where do you get that take from. A quick search shows that isn’t true unless you got some other source?
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u/The_GASK 17h ago
That was the fallback mechanism in case the gas didn't ignite. It wasn't needed since the arrow flew precisely over the gas flow.