CHAPTER 10.01: EIGENVALUES AND EIGENVECTORS: What is the origin of the word eigenvalue?

In this segment we will talk about what does the word eigenvalue itself mean eigenvalue comes from the word Eigenwert it is a general word and this “Eigen” stands for characteristic and then this one the word “wert” here stands for value so that’s where the origin of the word eigenvalue comes from characteristic value it will make sense later when you when we talk about eigenvalues how we find eigenvalues what we are do is finding something called the characteristic polynomial of which we have to find the zeros of or take the take the characteristic polynomial put it equal to zero and of that equation we have to find the roots so that’s what the word eigenvalue comes from and that’s the end of this segment