Thanks for the reply, Rhodium.
Hmmm. That's interesting and surprising to me that there is no easy way to determine a molecules polarity from knowing its structure. What exactly are the complicating factors that make it impossible to do this?
I was expecting to find out that there was some formula into which one could plug in stuff like charge difference across each bond, bond angles, distances of atoms from one another etc... So what else is there to factor in to determine the polarity of a molecule.
Is there any way to even approximate solubilities by looking at molecular structure? What other factors would need to be factored in besides charge difference across the molecule? (size of molecule, presence or absence of specific functional groups, what else?). Would the way that the molecules orient themselves in a given solution also be an issue?
Have any attempts been made at developing a predictive algorithm for the solubility of one molecule in another?
If anybody has any leads, they would be most appreciated. Trying to work out a way to make reasonably accurate predictions of solubility would be a most interesting project. I am sure its way over my head if nobodies done it already, but I would love to give it a try. If its all physics, then there must be a way to predict solubility.