 Sine trial bound for a linear potential on an interval

On $(0,L)$ with zero Dirichlet boundary conditions, the normalized trial $\sqrt{2/L}\sin (\pi x/L)$ has kinetic Rayleigh quotient ${\pi }^2/L^2$ and mean position $L/2$ by reflection symmetry. The Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle therefore gives the displayed upper bound for a real linear potential. For $ϵ\ge 0$ the lower bound ${\lambda }_1\ge {\pi }^2/L^2$ follows from the Poincaré inequality. For $ϵ\ne 0$ the trial is not an exact eigenfunction, so the upper bound is strict.