Zwaxy has decided to reward his editorial staff by giving them 10 priceless jewels to be distributed among them through the following procedure: each editor, starting with the senior-most will be given the opportunity to propose a distribution scheme to the group. The editors will then vote on whether to accept the proposal or to reject it. If the proposal is rejected, the editor who made it will be eliminated from the process, and forced to play Pot-o-Gold for 12 straight hours. The process will then continue without that editor, the next senior taking his turn. In order to pass, a proposal needs a majority of the editors still involved voting for it with ties broken by the senior editor (who proposed it).
Given that:
1) The editors each want to keep as many jewels for themselves as possible, without regard to the others.
2) The editors all really hate Pot-o-Gold.
3) The editors are all intelligent enough to deduce the optimal distribution for themselves at every stage of the process.
What distribution should the senior-most editor propose, and why? Since I don’t know the exact seniority standing of all the editors, and some of them may have been appointed on the same day, we will simply refer to them as Editor1 (the senior-most), Editor2, Editor3, Editor4, Editor5, Editor6, and Editor7 (the junior-most).
For the first person to respond with the correct answer, I have a choice (and therefore everyone is eligible!) of a Golden Era Game of the Week t-shirt:
or a Robotron 2084 t-shirt:
On the Robotron shirts, I only have one Medium, and one Large, so those are your choices.
Post your answers to the thread, but you only get one shot.
Also, if you are familiar with this puzzle in another form, please excuse yourself.
