A question for ER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzveUz-WRGQ
You may or may not know the answer to this, thought I'd ask. The above youtube clip is of a newer US warship of relative modest dimensions (<400') making an incredibly rapid and short radius turn. It truly is amazing compared to what I've seen before.
I'm wondering how much that ship might "flex" in the course of that turn. That is, how much it might bend, how far away from a straight line along the keel it might go.
If it does flex, will it return to absolutely straight? And are those things absolutely straight to start with?