The eigenvalue problem restated as in the example:

-𝜆 0 0 n1
0 300 - 𝜆 100 3 n2 =0 (1)
0 100 3 100 - 𝜆 n3

The eigenvalues have been solved for in the book and are rewritten here:
𝜎1 = 400, 𝜎2 = 𝜎3 = 0 (2)

To obtain the eigenvector (principle direction) corresponding to the first principle stress 𝜆1 = 𝜎1 = 400 , subsititing in (1):
-400 0 0 n1 -400 0 0 n1
0 300 - 400 100 3 n2 = 0 -100 100 3 n2 =0 (3)
0 100 3 100 - 400 n3 0 100 3 -300 n3

The first row yields:

-400 n1 = 0 → n1 = 0 (4)
The second and third rows are linearly dependent (i.e. 2nd row is a multiple of the 3rd one). Thus, only the 2nd row is used:
-100 n2 + 100 3 n3 = 0
simplify
⏪⏪⏪⏫ -n2 + 3 n3 = 0 (5)

Lets assume that n2 = 1, therefore n3 can be obtained from (5):

1
-1 + 3 n3 = 0 → n3 = (6)
3

Therefore, a general solution to the vector in (3) is the "nullspace" of the matrix:
0
v=𝛼 1 where : "𝛼" is any scalar (7)
1/ 3

The vector v in (7) can be shown to satisfy (3) and indeed produces the zero vector on RHS of (3) for any selected 𝛼. It only
remains to get a unit vector n (1) (magnitude=1) of the vector v. This can be achived by dividing the vector v by its magnitude:
1 1
0, 1, 0, 1,
v 3 3 3 1
n (1) = = = = 0,
v⋅v 2 2
2
,
2
(8)
1 3
02 + 12 +
3