Thanks for the quick reply. I think the problem itself was not worded very well and that's what threw me off. Good to know that I'm on the right track!
Let T:V to V be a linear operator on an n-dimensional vector space V. Let T have n distinct eigenvalues. Prove that the minimal polynomial and the characteristic polynomial are identical up to a factor of +/- 1
I'm probably over thinking this, but it seems that if you have n distinct...