  We study the effects of dynamical quarks on the static quark potential at
distances shorter than those where string breaking is expected. Quenched
calculations and calculations with three flavors of dynamical quarks are done
on sets of lattices with the lattice spacings matched within about one percent.
The effect of the sea quarks on the shape of the potential is clearly visible.
We investigate the consequences of these effects in a very crude model, namely
solving Schroedinger's equation in the resulting potential.
