First of all let me get this out of the way.
I am not an archer
But I do listen to them when they talk. I hear whispers of them talking about how there are bows that use the 35# rule to cheese the rules in a way the approaches safety issues. a bow at half draw that pulls 35# seems to be pretty darn cheesy and unsafe if the whole reason for half dray under 20' is for less power to the face.
Inch-pounds are a measure of energy. For bows, a simplified equation to calculate the energy stored in a bow and released in a shot arrow is to multiply the distance the string has been drawn from its rest position (or brace height) by the pounds of force required to draw it. For example, imagine a 35# bow whose string is 8" away from the front of the bow at rest (a brace height of 8"). At a full 28" draw, the arrow has been drawn 20" from the brace height, for a total of 700 inch-pounds (35# x 20" = 700"#). At half draw, such a bow would have stored 350"#.
I'm curious as to what real archers have to say to this. Is this worth talking about? Should I just shut up about things I don't know?