Eigenvalues/eigenvectors

[James Cappio]

David Milne speaks for me.  Isn't "Dudley Eigenvalue" *obviously* just a 
silly, engineering-nerd's pun, just like "Sammy Hilbert-Spaess" in GRAVITY'S 
RAINBOW?  Or is a cigar never just a cigar?


 
                  "If you can't be good, be thorough."

On Sat, 25 Feb 1995 milne at math.toronto.edu wrote:

> The "eigen-" of "eigenvector" normally is translated as "characteristic",
> and not as the other translations that I have seen here.  The idea is that
> the characteristic vectors and the associated values will in certain
> circumstances entirely characterize the linear transformation (for instance
> over the complex numbers).
> 
> I always thought that the name was just a silly pun... "Dudley" meaning
> "zero", and having zero eigenvalue, the translation is not invertible.  How
> this relates to the character is beyond me.
> 
> David Milne
>