Thank you, this is really helpful. The last advice proved to be very helpful and this really made things clear for me. I really appreciate everyone's input.
I graduated with a Bachelor's in Physics a few years back and have been working in the education field (Private Institute) for a few years now. Although I am making serious efforts to at least go for my Master's now, I am also looking for positions related to my degree outside the education...
well I managed to clean up the expression inside the sqrt a bit to: [(a-b)2 + c 2 ]/2
a2 -2ab + b2 + c2 = (a-b)2 + c2
λ1 = (a+b) + sqrt{(a-b)2 +c 2}/2
and λ2 = (a+b) - sqrt{(a-b)2 + c2}/2
now these expressions for Lambda are too difficult for me to use to solve for eigenvectors
M = (a c)
(c b)
Sorry for the double sets of brackets, its all in one. I'll also show as far as i got below:
[a-λ c] => (a-λ)(b-λ) - c^2 = λ^2 + (-a-b)λ + (ab-c^2) =0
[c b-λ] =>
then using the quadratic formula: λ = [-(-a-b) +/- Sqrt{(-a-b)^2 - 4(1)(ab-c^2)}]/ 2
then...