The thermal pressure coefficients and heat capacities of simple liquid metals

The thermal pressure coefficient and the heat capacity of a liquid metal provide direct measures of the softness of the constituent pseudo-atoms with respect to volume and temperature changes. This statement is clarified and quantified using the experimental evidence and the relevance is demonstrated of the information thus obtained to behaviour along the melting line. It is then shown that in favourable cases it is possible to obtain accurate results by ab initio calculation.