Wr extract atom-atom potentials from the effective spherical potentials tha
t successfully model Hugoniot experiments on molecular fluids, e.g., O-2 an
d N-2. In the case of O-2 the resulting potentials compare very well with t
he atom-atom potentials used in studies of solid-state properties, while fo
r N-2 they are considerably softer at short distances. Ground-state (T = 0
K) and room-temperature calculations performed with the N-N potential resol
ve the previous discrepancy between experimental and theoretical results.