A new molecular dynamics algorithm is reported to evaluate data of diffraction experiments on liquids or amorphous materials. The atoms, in addition to the excluding short-range forces, are moved in a fictitious potential field defined by the chi-square difference of the experimental structure factors. The results provided by the new reverse molecular dynamics algorithm are equivalent to those obtained using the reverse Monte Carlo method for the test model systems of the Lennard-Jones liquid and water. We exploited the test calculations of the water system to discuss the separation capabilities of these modeling techniques. The results were encouraging, if the number of different (good quality) experimental functions as input information is larger or equivalent with the number of particle pair-correlation functions necessary to characterize the structure of the system. However, the results indicated dubious outcomes, if there were more partials estimated than different experimental data sets. This questions the conclusions of some previous studies. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.