I want to understand more about the history of eigenvectors. Was the discovery of eigenvectors inspired from an application to achieve a result in a historical context, was there a phenomenon which operated in some related way that was observed, was it discovered from the formulation and explored and mentioned till applications were found, or from an indirect usage in some other area of mathematics for solving equations?
- Did they solve a problem which was not solvable previously?
- Where can someone read the original track of their derivation from basic principles?
- Who were the main mathematicians to contribute to the development and use of eigenvectors and in which texts are they described?