Space navigation

[GTRS Fiero]

In Star Trek, the Enterprise yaws when turning.  I'm no expert, and of course this is all fiction, but it would seem that there would be no need for a spacecraft to yaw in space.  Further, since it provides its own gravity and there is seldom a reference point, I'm not sure how you'd know, due to the vast distances.

[TopNotch]

And in the opening scenes of Star Trek (the original), the Enterprise would make a swishing sound as it sped away from the viewer. It's all done because that's what ordinary folks expect.
Since Enterprise is a space "ship", they expect it to behave like a motorboat in the water, which leans toward a curve. That's actually because the propeller, which is below the bottom of the hull, is pushing it that way. A large ship, like the aircraft carrier I was on when in the Navy, actually leans away from a hard curve, like a car. It's propellers (the Navy calls them "screws") are not below the bottom of the hull, and so it doesn't behave like a motorboat in a hard curve.

[GTRS Fiero]

Of course, when you were in the Navy, the entire senior staff didn't go into hostile situations.

[GTRS Fiero]

I thought it was mass that caused the leaning on ships and cars.  You know, centrifugal force.

The mount on an outboard motor is at an angle, so that the front will lift (rather than dive into the water) during acceleration.  Similarly, this angled mount causes the boat to lean into turns, which makes the ride more pleasant for passengers, but also doesn't lean into the wave created by the turn.

Inboard motors I'm not very familiar with on anything other than personal watercraft, like waverunners and jet-skis, but it would seem that they have directional nozzles at the end of the flow that basically achieve the same result as an angled motor mount.

I think the propellers are called ”screws” on all ships.  The cruise ships, certainly.

I think the effort to make a ship in space lean in a turn wouldn't be worth it.  I'm not sure whether or not there would be centrifugal force.  In a similar situation, Earth is rotating on its axis far faster than any space ship could maneuver.  I neither feel this nor am thrown from Earth on a tangent by centrifugal force, so I believe the passengers on a space ship with its own gravity would also feel minimal effects.

It really makes me wonder about acceleration and deceleration.  For example, tight navigation, going to and from warp (I used their verbiage, not what I would have used), going to and from a stop to full impulse.  They show the bridge crew leaning and gripping the arms of their seats in turns.  Or, they're ordered to ”brace for impact”.  They'd be thrown into the main viewer.  Even at impulse speed, no belts could safely hold them.