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"Back of the envelope" methods have their place in experimental chemical research; they are effective mediators in the generation of research ideas, for instance, the design of molecular structures. Their qualitative character is part of their strength, rather than a drawback for the role they have to play. Qualitative conformational analysis of oligonucleotide and other oligomer systems on the level of idealized conformations is one such method; it has played a helpful role in our work on the chemical etiology of nucleic acid structure. This article, while giving a short overview of that work, shows how.