Abstract
The absolute total electron scattering cross section for methane (inelastic+elastic, integrated over all angles) was measured with a time‐of‐flight electron transmission spectrometer for incident energies from 1.3 to 50 eV. The major discrepancies that exist between recent absolute measurements of the total cross section are discussed with careful consideration of probable error limits. Comparisons are also made with recent calculations of the elastic cross section.