# Why does Eigenvalues[matrix I defined] not work? [duplicate]

This is the code I have in my mathematica notebook. I want to find the eigenvalues of the matrix I created called Hmatrix as defined below. However when I type Eigenvalues[Hmatrix] I get the Hmatrix back with an extra set of brackets preceded by "Eigenvalues" again. Essentially, I am not getting the eigenvalues of this matrix and I wish to know what sort of syntax I have to use to find the eigenvalues of my Hmatrix.

\[Epsilon]s = -13.6;
\[Epsilon]so = -29.1;
\[Epsilon]p = -14.1;
ss\[Sigma] = -7.20;
sp\[Sigma] = 9.46;

\[Theta] = (\[Pi] - \[Beta]/2);

Hmatrix :=
MatrixForm[{{\[Epsilon]s, 0, ss\[Sigma],
Cos[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma], -Sin[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma],
0}, {0, \[Epsilon]s,
ss\[Sigma], -Cos[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma], -Sin[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma],
0}, {ss\[Sigma], ss\[Sigma], \[Epsilon]so, 0, 0,
0}, {Cos[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma], Cos[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma],
0, \[Epsilon]p, 0,
0}, {-Sin[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma], -Sin[\[Theta]]*sp\[Sigma], 0,
0, \[Epsilon]p, 0}, {0, 0, 0, 0, 0, \[Epsilon]p}}]

-
 Hmatrix is not an array of numbers: it is a MatrixForm object. Get rid of MatrixForm and try it. – whuber Mar 13 at 21:09

## marked as duplicate by whuber, Sjoerd C. de Vries, rm -rf♦Mar 13 at 21:13

The problem is the MatrixForm in your code. This is only to be used for display purposes and should be avoided if one wants to do any calculations with the matrix.