> On Jul 24, 2015, at 9:24 AM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 10:15 AM, Ethan McKinney
> <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> It was a laser drive, not fusion. Cut the Kzinti ship in half.
>
> I am kinda thinking it was the big Bussard ram jet that powered Human
> sublight ships before the humans acquired the standard hyperdrive from
> the Outsiders.

The Kzinti Lesson was derived from the initial defense of the solar system against the Kzin war fleet. The early human interstellar ships used asteroid-mounted laser launchers to push the ships up to speeds where the Bussard Ramjets worked. These ginormous lasers also served quite well as weapons.

<http://www.larryniven.net/kzin/worlds.shtml>

That said, I vaguely recall the “Kzinti Lesson” being described differently in “Ringworld”, which, iirc, is the first canonical mention of the thing. Louis has a discussion with Speaker about it.

Been a very long time since I re-read Ringworld.

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs