Let A be an nxn matrix, we want to find the nx1 vector x such that:
Ax = (lambda)x is true, where lambda is an unknown number.
We do this by solving the equation:
Ax -(lamda)(Identy_Matrix)x = 0
Now it is always the case that the zero vector will solve the problem but that is trivial, and does not lead to what we want.
(A-Idenity_Matrix*lambda)x=0
has a non trivial solution if the determinate of this matrix is set to zero, and we solve for lamba (several values may be obtained, at most n).
We then plug in for each value of lambda and solve for the vector x associated with the individual value of lambda.
You should consult a good linear algebra text, from memory the one written by Howard Anton is good and no - nonsense.