I have a general question regarding eigenvalues/vectors. Say you are

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I have a general question regarding eigenvalues/vectors. Say you are working on a matrix
[ 1, 1; 4, 1] and you find the eigenvalues to be 3 and -1.
Does it matter which eigenvalue is first...meaning does it matter when it is λ1= 3 and λ2=-1 or the other way around?
When you write out the general solution in the form of c1*e^-t[1, -2] + c2*e^3t[1, 2] , how do you know which eigenvalue is written first? In other words why can the general solution not be written as c1*e^3t[1, 2] + c2*e^-t[1, -2]?
 
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