Can you feel a starship move?

[Crewman47]

In Nemesis Picard said that he could detect a misalignment in some techno device on the ship possibly through vibrations in the deck plates.

Now here on Earth, when you're travelling by land, sea or air you can feel the vehicle below moving because of vibrations and what not so I was just wondring if this would be the same case on a starship where on any deck, no matter where you are, either deep in the bowels of the ship or on the outer edges, do you suppose you could feel the ship moving and could you determine at what speed you could be moving at?

I know that the IDF systems are there to protect from the inetial forces of FTL travel but there must be some residule effect that that a crewman would feel?

Any ideas.

 

[Brent]

Scotty said he could tell just by the feel as well.

 

[stupor]

In the TNG episode "Brothers" when Data takes over the ship, Riker says they only know the ship has dropped out of warp by looking out the window. Unless he was just exaggerating...

 

[Timo]

Probably. And it's likely to depend on the ship, and the location within the ship. On the TOS bridge, the different whines associated with different warp drive statuses could easily be identified: normal beep-beep for anything below w, an ascending whistling noise for w7, and "The bairns! The bairns!" for w8 and beyond...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Forbin]

There must be some kind of vibration associated with movement, if only for dramatic purposes!

Any lag in the acceleration fileds (which there must be, or people wouldn't be thrown out of their chairs) would also allow you to feel if the ship was moving, or at least if it was accelerating or changing vector.

 

[Ronald Held]

In reality, unless there was a problem with the IDF/AGS, you should have no idea how the ship is moving by feel.

 

[Timo]

However, you might well be aware of the status of the machinery required for making the ship move. And thus you could indirectly feel, hear, or perhaps even smell how fast the ship was going, even if there was no sense of movement as such.

It's sort of logical that one wouldn't hear or feel much on the bridge of a giant Galaxy class ship. Even the sounds of weapons firing would probably be synthesized for the benefit of our bridge crew - they certainly sound like that in TNG. Kirk could have heard or felt more aboard his more compact ship, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ronald Held]

Perhpas that is true. You might sense the ship's speed by the sound of the warp engine, but not the direction.
Unless the weapons sounds are placed as part of the background sounds, and the IDF/AGS is designed to give a subtle sense of what the ship is doing?

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, I would go with the vibrations of the ships machinery over actual acceleration forces being the key indicators. When I was system admin on cruise ships, even though the server room was dead center of the ship with no windows, I could always sense when we started out from port. Regardless of sea conditions. If your on a vessel long enough, you do become attuned to it.

 

[Kaziarl]

When a tv, or computer monitor is turned on I can hear this high pitched whine. I would guess there might be something similar for the IDF/AGS systems. They probably have to work harder when the ship jumps to warp, so maybe some people can hear that. I would also guess that, while trek computers are shown to be very fast, there is probably a momentary lag between speed, and the IDF/AGS compensating for that speed. Not enough to pancake you, but enough to notice the jump.

 

[CuttingEdge100]

The part I never understood is that when it came to warp-drives, pretty much all the theories I've heard floated for warp-drive ideas (such as Alcubierre's idea) would produce no feeling of acceleration.

(I recently read that Alcubierre's idea wouldn't work as the thermal energy levels would soar as energy ran out, it could barbecue everything nearby and then possibly collapse into a black-hole, though)

CuttingEdge100

 

[Ronald Held]

The ship would locally be in a flat space-time, so there would be not sense of motion there.

 

[RichMerk]

I've always assumed that under normal operating conditions you couldn't really discern any accelleration unless you were really looking for it. The captain orders Warp 6!, the helmsman pushes a button, and everyone just sits there. They don't get pressed back in their chairs or anything. But how many episodes have we seen where the bridge crew leans one way and then the other gripping the edges of their consoles wishing they had seatbelts as the Enterprise goes through some violent manuevers and you start hearing that signature "engines overloading" whine.

 

[Kross]

If you can feel the ship moving, then its time to call Engineering and give them hell, because obviously the inertial dampeners are broken.

 

[Ronald Held]

it could be that the IDF is slightly off/delayed, under extreme accelerations near to the ship's limits, to be detectable.

 

[USS KG5]

Does anyone else reading this picture Jim Kirk with his latest conquest saying " hey baby, did the starship move for you...?"

 

[Kross]

Then Spock saying "Yes, it was most fascinating!"

*Snicker*

 

[USS KG5]

Then Spock saying "Yes, it was most fascinating!"

*Snicker*

I always figured Spock would be the giver, if we are going down the Kirk/Spock slash route, not sure how "Trek Tech" it is though, unless you are thinking how the dildo will evolve in 400 years!

 

[hellsgate]

I could see a moment or two of movement, as the innertial dampers and gravity plating quickly try to figure themselves out before any real acceleration gets going.

 

[Kross]

Then Spock saying "Yes, it was most fascinating!"

*Snicker*

I always figured Spock would be the giver, if we are going down the Kirk/Spock slash route, not sure how "Trek Tech" it is though, unless you are thinking how the dildo will evolve in 400 years!

It already has.

He's fully functional.

I concur with hellsgate, if you're going to feel the ship move then it would have to be as it enters or leaves warp. Even then, it would only be momentary.