Let: $$ A = \begin{pmatrix} 5 &2 & -1 \\ 2 & 2 & 2 \\ -1 & 2 & 5 \end{pmatrix} \in Mat_3(\mathbb{R})$$
1) Show that $0$ and $6$ are eigenvalues for $A$ and find the basis for the corresponding eigenspace.
2) Explain why $A$ is orthonormal diagonalizable and find an orthonormal basis for $\mathbb{R^3}$ consisting of eigenvectors for $A$
1) By solving the characteristic polynomial of $A$ it is possible to show that 0 and 6 are eigenvalues for A.
$det(A-\lambda \cdot I) = det( \begin{pmatrix} 5-t &2 & -1 \\ 2 & 2-t & 2 \\ -1 & 2 & 5-t \end{pmatrix} = (5-t)(t^2-7t+6)-2(-2t+12)-1(6-t)=-t^3+12t^2-36t = -t(t^2-12t+36) = -t((t-6)(t-6))=-t(t-6)^2$
To solve $-t(t-6)^2 = 0$ we either have $0$ or $6$, which means that 0 and 6 are eigenvalues for $A$.
The basis for the eigenspace can be found by calculating the null space and we get that: $E_A(0) = N(A) = span(\begin{pmatrix} 1 \\ -2 \\ 1 \end{pmatrix})$ and $E_A(6) = N(A-6I) = span(\begin{pmatrix} 2 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix} -1 \\ 0 \\ 1 \end{pmatrix})$
2) We see that the geometric multiplicity and the algebraic multiplicity are equal to each other, which means that A is diagonalizable.
How do I go on from here? I know that I have an invertible matrix $P$ consisting of the eigenvectors $P=\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 & -1 \\ -2 & 1 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & -1 \end{pmatrix}$ such that $D = P^{-1}AP$. But this only means that it is diagonalizable and not orthogonal diagonalizable.
Note that $A$ is symetric hence by the spectral theorem it's orthogonal diagonalizable.