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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Brazil

Initially, a calculator displays number 11. An operation consists in pressing either key sin\sin or key cos\cos, which calculates respectively the sine and cosine with the arguments in radians. After performing 20012001 operations, what is the greatest possible value that can be achieved?

Solution

Obviously the value does not exceed 11. We cannot get close to 11 with sin\sin. So the final press must be cos\cos and we want the previous value to be as close to 00 as possible. We cannot get close to 00 with cos\cos, so the 20002000th press must be sin\sin. Thus we want the previous value to be as close to 00 as possible. So, by a simple induction, all presses except the last must be sin\sin.

Put a1=sin1a_1 = \sin 1. Put an+1=sinana_{n+1} = \sin a_n for n=1,,1999n = 1, \dots, 1999 and put a2001=cosa2000a_{2001} = \cos a_{2000}. The best value is a2001a_{2001}.

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