Mathematics

Week 6

Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors

 Acknowledgement
<<Title>>
These slides have been
adapted from:

Anton, Howard, and Chris

Rorres. Elementary linear
algebra: applications version.
John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
LO 4 :
Solve the system of linear equation,
determinant, vector, and eigenvalue
problems. .
 Contents

1
1
Determine eigenvalues and
eigenvectors
2 2
Diagonalization

.
Eigenvalue and Eigenvector
In this lesson, we study about eigenvalue,
eigenvector and diagonalization
Definition
If A is an
=
for some scalar , the scalar is called an eigenvalue of A and x is said to be an
eigenvector corresponding to .

Theorem
If A is an , is an eigenvalue of A if and only if it satisfies the equation

This is called the characteristic equation of A.

Example 1 : Find the eigenvalue of
A=
Solution : = =-5+8-4 =0
or in factored form, = 0. Thus, the distinct eigenvalues of A are =1 and = 2
 Eigenvector

Since the eigenvectors corresponding to an eigenvalue of a matrix A are

thenonzero vectors that satisfy the equation

these eigenvectors are the nonzero vectors in the null space of the matrix .

We call this null space the eigenspace of A corresponding to .

Stated another way, the eigenspace of A corresponding to the eigenvalue

is the solution space of the homogeneous system
Example 1 : Find the eigenvector of
A=
Solution :
Step 1 : Find the eigenvalue
Consider from example 1, the distinct eigenvalues of A are =1 and = 2 so there
are two eigenspaces of A.
Step 2 : Find the eigenvector
By definition x=
is an eigenvector of A corresponding to if and only if x is a nontrivial solution of or
in matrix form,
In the case where = 2
=
Solving this system using Gaussian elimination yields
=-s, =t, =s
Thus, the eigenvectors of A corresponding to = 2 are the nonzero vectors of the
form

Since
I, then

Then solving by Gauss-Jordan Elimination

hence is the eigenvector

 REFERENCES

Anton, Howard, and Chris Rorres. Elementary linear algebra:

applications version. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Thank You