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We consider the regular Sturm-Liouville equation on [0,1] (p(x) y')'+(.lambda. w(x)-q(x))y=0 together with separated boundary conditions. In 1993, Ashbaugh and Benguria [2] gave various optimal bounds of eigenvalue ratios for the Sturm- Liouville system with Dirichlet boundary conditions. when q .gdsim. 0. For the general regular Sturm-Liouville system, we prove the various estimates of eigenvalue ratios under the same assumption. For the Neumann boundary conditions, the upper bound is a sharp estimate. The modified Prufer substitution and the Comparison Theorem are the key techniques in the proof. A trigonometric inequality given in [1] is also found to be useful. In this thesis, we give an alternatively proof with elementary methods. We also give an elementary proof of an trigonometric inequality were given in [1]. The sign of .lambda. of the index 1 need to be discussed too. Using the modified Prufer substitution and the Comparison Theorem, we prove that .lambda.1 .relbo. 0 for most of the for most of the separated boundary conditions. In conclusion, this thesis can be viewed as an application of the methods of the modified Prufer substitution and the Comparison Theorem to eigenvalue problems.
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