4 ms·
Not just kids in school - you can get to grad school in science with lectures that consist of: What's an eigenvector? It's the solution to an eigenfuction! W
by excuse-me 14y ago
Not just kids in school - you can get to grad school in science with lectures that consist of:
What's an eigenvector?
It's the solution to an eigenfuction!
What's an eigenfunction?
It's an equation that has an eigenvector as the solution - now goto the next chapter...
- unimpressive 14y agohttp://lesswrong.com/lw/iq/guessing_the_teachers_password/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/iq/guessing_the_teachers_password/ Now kids, what did you learn?[0] Don't guess the teachers password?! Excellent! Next chapter... [0] As I was writing that I thought that there could be a paradox somewhere in there if you phrased it right.
- jasomill 14y agoSeriously? That's not even a sensible mutually recursive set of definitions. And to think I've been told I'll have trouble getting into grad school on account of my GPA... Then again, functional analysis as an admission requirement for a graduate science program seems like it'd be a bit of a stretch in most places.
- JadeNB 14y agoI hope no one gives this definition, since it's wrong. An eigenvector (for a linear map `T`) is a non-`0` solution `v` to an equation of the form `Tv = λv`. (I suppose one could call the equation an eigenequation, but I've never seen anyone do that.) An eigenfunction is exactly the same thing; we just tend to use the terminology when `T` is operating on a space of functions. (For example, one may refer to an exponential map as an eigenfunction of the differentiation operator on the space of smooth functions; it would be equally correct, but probably confusing, to call it an eigenvector for that operator.)