_stiffness_ of the bow would be materially increased.

~Stiffness~ is the property by means of which a body acted upon
by external forces tends to retain its natural size and shape,
or resists deformation. Thus a material that is difficult to
bend or otherwise deform is stiff; one that is easily bent or
otherwise deformed is _flexible_. Flexibility is not the exact
counterpart of stiffness, as it also involves toughness and
pliability.

If successively larger loads are applied to a body and then
removed it will be found that at first the body completely
regains its original form upon release from the stress--in other
words, the body is ~elastic~. No substance known is perfectly
elastic, though many are practically so under small loads.
Eventually a point will be reached where the recovery of the
specimen is incomplete. This point is known as the ~elastic
limit~, which may be defined as the limit beyond which it is
impossible to carry the distortion of a body without producing a
permanent alteration in shape. After this limit has been
exceeded, the size and shape of the specimen after removal of
the load will not be the same as before, and the difference or
amount of change is known as the ~permanent set~.

Elastic limit as measured in tests and used in design may be
defined as that unit stress at which the deformation begins to
increase in a faster ratio than the applied load. In practice
the elastic limit of a material under test is determined from
the stress-strain diagram. It is that point in the line where
the diagram begins perceptibly to curve.[2] (See Fig. 1.)