Momentum profiles of the valence orbitals of methylpropane, also known as isobutane (CH3CH(CH3)CH3), have been studied by using a high resolution binary (e,2e) electron momentum spectrometer (EMS), at an impact energy of 1200 eV plus the binding energy, and using symmetric noncoplanar kinematics. The coincidence energy resolution of the EMS spectrometer is 0.95 eV full width at half-maximum. The experimental momentum profiles of the valence orbitals are compared with the theoretical momentum distributions calculated using Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional theory (DFT) methods with the two basis sets of 6-31G and 6-311++G**. The B3LYP functionals are used for the DFT calculations. In general, the experimental momentum distributions are well described by the HF and DFT calculations. The pole strengths of the main ionization peaks from the orbitals in the inner valence are estimated. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.