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what are the various types of motion ? how many are they ?
Rotational, Translational, Oscillatory (Vibratory) and Deformation

The last one is not traditionally thought of but while a spring moves on a linear path it is caused by deformation of the metal. Your teacher is probablly looking for the first three. In Kinematics only the first three are considered the science of Dynamics is devoted to the fourth.

Rotational = planets orbits
Translational = projectile path or linear
Oscillatory (Vibratory) = periodic like a pendulum, vibrations as in the vibrations of a string or the oscillating movement of a photon which moves in a linear fashion while vibrating (that sets the frequency)
Deformation = motion inside of an object like tension, buckling, twisting, compression, or expansion.


Kinematics  is a branch of mechanics which describes the motion of objects without the consideration of the masses or forces that bring about the motion. In contrast, dynamics is concerned with the forces and interactions that produce or affect the motion.
Kinematics studies how the position of an object changes with time. Position is measured with respect to a set of coordinates. Velocity is the rate of change of position. Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity. Velocity and Acceleration are the two principal quantities which describe how position changes.

Types of Motion:

- Translation: Motion along a path
examples: Position, Velocity, Net force
- Rotational: Rigid of a body about an axis
- Rotational: Orientation of the axis, Angular position,
- Deformation: Bending, stretching, twisting,
examples: Internal elastic forces, springs, tension and compression

"1. Translational motion results in a change of location. This category may seem ridiculous at first as motion implies a change in location, but an object can be moving and yet not go anywhere. I get up in the morning and go to work (an obvious change in location), but by evening I'm back at home (back in the very same bed where I started the day). Is this translational motion? Well, it depends. If the problem at hand is to determine how far I travel in a day, then there are two possible answers: either I've gone to work and back (thirteen miles each way for a total of 26 miles) or I've gone nowhere (thirteen miles each way for a total of zero miles). The first answer invokes translational motion while the second invokes oscillatory motion.

2. Oscillatory motion is repetitive and fluctuates between two locations. In the previous example of going from home to work to home to work I am moving, but in the end I haven't gone anywhere. This second type of motion is seen in pendulums (like those found in grandfather clocks), vibrating strings (a guitar string moves but goes nowhere), and drawers (open, close, open, close -- all that motion and nothing to show for it). Oscillatory motion is interesting in that it often takes a fixed amount of time for an oscillation to occur. This kind of motion is said to be periodic and the time for one complete oscillation (or one cycle) is called a period. Periodic motion is important in the study of sound, light, and other waves. Large chunks of physics are devoted to this kind repetitive motion. Doing the same thing over and over and going nowhere is pretty important; which brings us to our next type of motion.

3. Rotational motion occurs when an object spins. The earth is in a constant state of motion, but where does that motion take it? Every twenty-four hours it makes one complete rotation about its axis. (Actually, it's a bit less than that, but let's not get bogged down in details.) The sun does the same thing, but in about twenty-four days. So do all the planets, asteroids, and comets; each with its own period. (Note that rotational motion too is often periodic.) On a more mundane level, bocce balls, CDs, and wheels also rotate. That should be enough examples to keep us busy for awhile."
"There are three types of motion that we will study in mechanics. These are TRANSLATION, ROTATION and VIBRATION. Translation is motion along some path from one place to another, like a car moving down a highway. Rotation is motion around some axis, like the Earth's daily motion. Vibration is a back and forth motion like the pendulum of a clock. For the purposes of this lesson we will not consider rotation, limiting ourselves to motion in a straight line. This simplification eliminates the need to use vectors to measure the quantities describing the motion. The straight-line motion is the reason we use 1 Dimension in the title of this lesson. Also by placing this restriction on the motion we will study, we only need to consider objects that are particles , meaning that their size does not enter into our consideration."


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