Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/18/a/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 1 18 a i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The first coordinate direction is already an eigenvector of with eigenvalue . On the last two coordinates, the matrix is , with characteristic polynomialThus the three eigenvalues are . For , the last two components are equal; for , they are opposite. Normalising by the Euclidean norm gives the complete listEach sign-reversed vector is an equally valid choice. The three displayed eigenvectors are mutually orthogonal, as expected for a real symmetric matrix with distinct eigenvalues.
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