Ab initio theory with the 3-21G, 6-31G(d), 6-31G(d,p), 6-311 G(d,p), 6-31 +G(d), and 6-311 +G(d,p) basis sets and density functional theory (SVWN, pBP, BLYP), including the hybrid density functional methods B3LYP, B3PW91, and B3P86, have been used to calculate the energies of the chair, half-chair, sofa, twist, and boat conformers of tetrahydro-2H-pyran (oxacyclohexane, oxane, pentamethylene oxide, tetrahydropyran, THP). The enthalpies (DeltaH degrees), entropies (DeltaS degrees), and free energies (DeltaG degrees) of the conformers were also determined. The energy difference (DeltaE, kcal/mol) between the chair and the 2,5-twist conformer is 5.92 to 6.10 (HF), 5.78 to 6.10 (MP2), 6.71 to 6.82 (SVWN), 6.04 to 6.12 (pBP), and 5.84 to 5.95 (BLYP, B3LYP, B3PW91, B3P86). The energy difference! (AE, kcal/mol) between the chair and the 1,4-boat conformer is 6.72 to 7.05 (HF), 6.76 to 7.16 (MP2), 6.97 to 7.20 (SVWN), 6.26 to 6.36 (pBP), and 6.23 to 6.46 (BLYP, B3LYP, B3PW91, B3P86). The transition state between the chair conformation and the 2,5-twist conformation is 11 kcal/mol higher in energy than the chair conformer.