TITLE: How can I find the dimension of the eigenspace?
QUESTION [9 upvotes]: The matrix $A = \begin{bmatrix}9&-1\\1&7\end{bmatrix}$ has one eigenvalue of multiplicity 2. Find this eigenvalue and the dimension of the eigenspace.

So I found the eigenvalue by doing $A - \lambda I$ to get:
$\lambda = 8$
But how exactly do I find the dimension of the eigenspace?

REPLY [9 votes]: By definition, an eigenvector $v$ with eigenvalue $\lambda$ satisfies $Av = \lambda v$, so we have $Av-\lambda v =Av - \lambda I v = 0$, where $I$ is the identity matrix. Thus, $$(A-\lambda I)v = 0,$$ and $v$ is in the nullspace of $A-\lambda I$. 
Since the eigenvalue in your example is $\lambda = 8$, to find the eigenspace related to this eigenvalue we need to find the nullspace of $A - 8I$, which is the matrix $$\left[\begin{array}{cc}1 & -1 \\ 1 & -1 \\ \end{array} \right].$$ We can row-reduce it to obtain $$\left[\begin{array}{cc} 1 & -1 \\ 0 & 0 \\ \end{array} \right].$$ This corresponds to the equation $$x-y = 0,$$ so $x = y$ for every eigenvector associated to the eigenvalue $\lambda = 8$. Therefore, if $(x,y)$ is an eigenvector, then $(x,y) = (x,x) = x(1,1)$, meaning that the eigenspace is $$W=[(1,1)],$$ and its dimension is $1$.