Ways of Moving
Slide, spin, swing — the kinds of motion
What this lesson covers
Why it matters
A sliding carrom striker, a spinning top, a swinging cradle, a rolling ball — all 'moving', but in four different dialects.
Predict first
Push a box straight across the floor. Its motion is…
Translatory = place-to-place. Rotatory = turning about an axis. Oscillatory = to-and-fro. Rolling = translatory + rotatory at once.
- translatory — the whole box shifts from place to place — correct
- rotatory
- oscillatory
What you do
Push the box through the middle (it slides) and at a corner (it spins) — two kinds of motion from one push.
Check yourself
A spinning ceiling fan shows…
It turns about a fixed axis without going anywhere — pure rotation.
A swing in the park shows…
Back and forth past the same middle point, over and over — the oscillation family (like a pendulum).
A rolling football has…
It spins about its centre WHILE the centre travels — two dialects at once.
- rotatory motion — correct
- translatory motion
- oscillatory motion
- oscillatory motion — to and fro about a middle — correct
- rotatory motion
- no motion
- both translatory and rotatory motion — correct
- only rotatory
- only translatory