This wikipedia graphic gives a pretty good graphical explanation of what eigenvalues do and what eigenvectors are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalues_and

This wikipedia graphic gives a pretty good graphical explanation of what eigenvalues do and what eigenvectors are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalues_and_eigenvectors#mediaviewer/File:Eigenvectors.gif http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eigenvalues_and_eigenvectors#me...