Elastic tensors for organic molecular crystals vary significantly among different measurements. To understand better the origin of these differences, Brillouin scattering and resonant ultrasound spectroscopy measurements were made on the same specimen for single crystal pentaerythritol tetranitrate. The results differ significantly despite mitigation of sample-dependent contributions to errors. The frequency dependence and vibrational modes probed for both measurements are discussed in relation to the observed tensor variance.The elastic stiffness tensor ͑C ij ͒ for organic, molecular crystals provides insight into ordering and molecular interactions, assists in understanding of other physical behaviors, and directs model development for industrially-important processes. This is true for materials relevant to diverse applications, including pharmaceutical, optoelectronic, and energetic materials. Complete C ij determinations are sparse for organic molecular crystals and comparative analyses are limited to a disconnected, study-by-study basis with little interpretation of variance. Compared C ij measurements for a few of these materials reveals large ͑tens of percent͒, nonsystematic variations. With no obvious correlation to the material or measurement technique, differences have been ascribed to potential sample purity and processing variations.Spanning orders of magnitude in frequency and volume, several techniques are available for the determination of C ij as follows: resonant ultrasound spectroscopy ͑RUS͒, 1 pulseecho ultrasound ͑P-E͒, impulsive stimulated scattering ͑ISS͒, 2 and Brillouin scattering. 3 For three energetic materials, there have been several reported C ij determinations. For pentaerythritol tetranitrate ͑PETN͒, P-E, and ISS measurements compare well. 4,5 For cyclotrimethylene trinitramine ͑RDX͒, P-E, two separate RUS measurements, and ISS compare well, while Brillouin scattering yielded values significantly stiffer overall than the other measurements. 5-9 ISS and Brillouin measurements for cyclotetramethylene tetranitramine ͑HMX͒ do not agree well with each other ͑Brillouin values softer͒, or with a separate partial determination by ISS. 10-12 These disparities motivated this research to understand whether the variance is a consequence of sample variation, including purity, inherent or induced defects, or another physical mechanism.Here, C ij for PETN was determined on the same crystalline sample by Brillouin scattering and RUS. PETN is an ideal system for this study given the tetragonal symmetry ͑P-421c͒, 13 facile crystal growth, nearly isotropic optical indicatrix and the previously published C ij determinations for added comparison. PETN crystals were grown by evaporation from ethyl acetate over approximately two weeks. The harvested crystal was approximately 1 ϫ 1 ϫ 0.25 cm 3 , colorless, un-twinned, and well-formed, exhibiting the common ͕110͖ family of faces as verified by X-ray diffraction.This crystal was used as-is for all Brillouin scattering experiments. Brillouin-scattering freque...