Spaceship design - a hypothetical excercise

[bobdude11]

... the images I've seen from Alcubierre's work shows something that looks like an elongated football with a ring around it, and I imagine the force of gravity would be oriented in the direction of travel; IOW, you'd be flying feet-first.

Thank you for the detailed explanation - admittedly, I have only a VERY basic understanding of the math, it still makes sense how you describe it! Also to your note, in the series Enterprise, the Vulcan ships are elongated with a warp ring instead of two nacelles. Perhaps a nod to Alcubierre?

Be aware I'm just a moderately enthusiastic code monkey, not an expert in theoretical physics, or aerospace engineering, or much of anything else, really.  I got through one semester of Differential Equations with a D for Done, so I'm going off of a layman's understanding of all of this.  Don't take any of this as more than poorly informed opinion.  I think I'm right in the large, but I couldn't math my way out of a paper bag so I wouldn't be able to back any of it up. 

You still have more math experience than I do ... in the dictionary next to neophyte, you will find my picture.