The arrangement and stacking of noncovalently contiguous double-helical sections are increasingly invoked in single-stranded DNA and RNA tertiary structure. These tertiary structures of nucleic acids are defined by their double stranded regions, and their orientation in the molecular frame constitutes an important component of the nucleic acid structure. A direct view of these tertiary structures can be obtained by fluorescence polarization anisotropy of bound ethidium bromide (EB). The orientation of the dye in the molecular frame of the nucleic acid yields the orientation of the helix. The complete anisotropy function for EB intercalated in genome-derived DNA duplexes was derived by Allison and Schurr (1979) and accounts for base-pair twisting and DNA bending. Single-stranded ribozymes, ribosomal and transfer RNAs, and model DNA junctions contain double-stranded regions shorter than 35 bp in length, for which bending is not significant. We developed and experimentally verified an expression of the anisotropy function for short DNA duplexes which is theoretically compatible with the existing theory, originally developed for long nucleic acids (Schurr et al., 1992). Simulations showed that for DNA duplexes shorter than 35 bp, our expression of the anisotropy function is equivalent to Schurr's and is consistent with experiments carried out on eight DNA duplexes. Modeling the eight duplexes as cylinders, we calculate a duplex diameter of 1.91 +/- 0.15 nm when EB makes a 90 degrees angle with the DNA helix axis and undergoes anisotropic wobbling and 1.97 +/- 0.15 nm when EB makes a 70.5 degrees angle and undergoes isotropic wobbling, respectively. We used this treatment to establish the conformation of five DNA oligonucleotides made of single and tethered hairpins, some designed to exhibit coaxial stacking. Analysis of the fluorescence anisotropy decays shows that the tethered hairpins take an extended rather than parallel conformation. It also shows that the DNA oligonucleotides made of two tethered hairpins exhibit freedom compatible with two independent hairpins. When the linker between hairpins is shortened, the two hairpins are not independent anymore as probed by fluorescence anisotropy, suggesting coaxial stacking of the two helices.