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Re: water molecule

I suppose that one scheme that could be implemented >is to imagine
that all the charge is concentrated on the locations >of the mean
centers of the nuclei, and then assign whatever >charge to each
nucleus is necessary to give the correct dipole >moment for the
whole molecule. Is this what Justin want's to know?

Essentially. I suppose I bought too strongly into the model of the oxygen atom having a small negative charge and the hydrogen atoms having a small positive charge such that each could be precisely defined in magnitude and location in space. But even if it is a quick and dirty model it might make a fun problem to do. At least it gets at the fact that charges *really* exist in scenarios other than on small round objects on number lines like so many textbook problems.

Justin Parke