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Explainingthephysicalmeaningofaneigenvalueinarealworldproblem
ContextualProblem
APhDstudentinAppliedMathematicsisdefendinghisdissertationandneedstomake10gallonkegconsistingofvodkaandbeerto
placatehisthesiscommittee.Supposethatallcommitteemembers,beingstubbornpeople,refusetosignhisdissertationpaperwork
untilthenextday.Sinceallcommitteememberswillbedrivinghomeimmediatelyafterhisdefense,hewantstomakesurethattheyall
drivehomesafely.Todoso,hemustensurethathismixturedoesn'tcontaintoomuchalcoholinit!
Therefore,hisgoalistomakea10litermixtureofvodkaandbeersuchthatthetotalalcoholcontentofthemixtureisonly12 percent.
Supposethatbeerhas8% alcoholwhilevodkahas40% .Ifxisthevolumeofbeerandy isthevolumeofvodkaneeded,thenclearly
thesystemofequationsis
x + y = 10
0.08x + 0.4y = 0.12 10

MyQuestion
Theeigenvaluesandeigenvectorsofthecorrespondingmatrix
[

0.08

0.4

are
1 1.1123
2 0.2877
0.9938
v1 [

]
0.1116

0.8145
v2 [

]
0.5802

HowdoIinterprettheirphysicalmeaninginthecontextofthisparticularproblem?
(eigenvalueseigenvectors )
editedJul11'13at18:25

askedJul11'13at17:43

Paul
870

28

1 Hangonnow,ishemixingvodkaandrum(asyousaidatfirst)orvodkaandbeer?Ofcourseinthefirst
case,itwouldn'tbepossibletogetamixturewith12%alcoholcontent,butatleastthatwaythecommittee
won'tbeviolentlyill...user64687Jul11'13at17:51
@AsalBeagDubh:Ieditedthequestionforconsistency,replacingallinstancesof'rum'with'beer'. Paul
Jul11'13at18:26
Paul:thanks!Iwasmostlyjustmakingahumorouscommentaboutthe(tome)horribleprospectofdrinking
amixtureofvodkaandbeer...user64687Jul11'13at18:53
@AsalBeagDubh:Whateverittakestoconferyourdoctorateisworthit,evenvodkawithbeer!:) Paul
Jul11'13at19:39
Thiscandidateisclearlydemonstratingadvancedunderstandingviahisapplicationofmathematics.I
suggesthiscommitteeawardtheappliedmathsPhDforhissolutiontothisproblemalone.GyuEunLee
Jul12'13at0:12

5Answers

Whiletheeigenvectorsandeigenvaluesdon'tplaytheirusualroleinthisproblem(asarguedin
theotheranswers)theeigensystemstillhasaphysicalinterpretation.
Theeigenvector v isunphysicalsinceitcorrespondstoanegativevolume.
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LetM representthematrixabove,
M v1 = 1 v1 .

Since y/( x) =
tobeer.Inaddition
1

y/x

,thealcoholcontentofthefinalmixtureisequaltotheratioofvodka

x + y = 1 x,

sotheeigenvalueisthealcoholcontentofthefinalmixtureplusone.
Thismixturecouldbeusedsincethealcoholcontentisabout11percent.Togeta10liter
mixturescaletheeigenvector, v 10v /(x + y) .Perhapsthecommitteewouldfindita
moremathematicallyinterestingmixture.
1

answeredJul11'13at19:05

user26872
11.2k

15

56

Aninterpretationofeigenvaluesandeigenvectorsofthismatrixmakeslittlesensebecauseitis
notinanaturalfashionanendomorphismofavectorspace:Onthe"input"sideyouhave
(litersofvodka,litersofbeer)andontheputput(litersofliquid,litersofalcohol).For
example,nothingspeaksagainstswitchingtheorderofbeerandvodka(orofliquidand
alcohol),whichwouldresultintotallydifferenteigenvalues.
answeredJul11'13at18:00

HagenvonEitzen
171k

13

168

317

Firstweneedtointerpretthetransformation"physically".Whatthisdoesisgetstheamountof
eachtypeofalcoholasinput,andspitsoutthetotalvolumeandalcoholvolumeasoutput.
I'dbesurprisedifthishasaserious"physicalinterpretation",becausetheinputandoutputare
ofdifferenttypes.IsupposeI'dsaythattheeigenvectorsarethealcoholmixeswheretheratio
ofbeertovodkaisthesameasthepercentageofalcoholinthefinalmixture.Technically
interprable,butprobablynomorethanacuriosity.
answeredJul11'13at18:02

RobertMastragostino
10.1k

15

37

Youdon'treallyneedeigenvectorstosolvethisproblem.Justtreatitasalinearprogramming
problemandlettheSimplexAlgorithm(oryouralgorithmofchoice)comeupwithafeasible
solution.Sinceyouneedanobjectivefunction,youcanchooseonearbitrarilyforexample,you
mightchoosetominimizethetotalcost.Ifyoudon'tknowthecostsofbeerandvodka,just
makesomeup.
answeredJul12'13at0:07

awkward
1,740

1 Thequestionisaboutunderstandingandinterpretingtheeigenvalues/eigenvectors,notfindingamethodto
solvetheequation. Paul Jul12'13at0:09

Problemisverysimpleandinteresting11.1123iscontentofpurebeeralcoholvolumevise
and20.2877iscontentofpurevodkaalcoholvolumewise(8 beerinoneliter=80mL pure
beeralcohol).
InVolumedirectionhasnosignificancesohereeigenvectorarepuremathematicalterm.
editedOct8'14at8:02

answeredOct8'14at7:15

Riccardo.Alestra

Mohit

4,635

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