Types of motion
we distinguish between four types of motion:
a.Random motion
Objects move irregularly or at randomly or haphazardly or disorderly with no preferred direction or orientation.As a result of such random movement,the particles collide with one another.An example of such motion is the Brownian motion - an irregular motion of particles of various kinds suspended in water, or of smoke particles suspended in air, or the motion of gas particles.
b.Translation motion
When rigid objects move from one point in space to another without rotating,the motion is said to be translation.Each part of an object undergoing pure translation motion follows the same path.An example is the driver shown below a bee flying from one flower time another, a car travelling from Enugu to Lagos,or from one station to another.
It translation motion, every point in the body remains relatively fixed to one another.
c.Rotational motion
By rotational motion we mean that all points the body moves in concentric circles, such as the point P in rotating wheel and that the centre of these circles all lie on a line called the axis of rotation.Examples are the earth rotating about it axis,the wheels of a moving car,the rotation of the blades of an electric fan.
d.Oscillatory (or vibratory) motion
When a body moves to and fro,reversing the direction of it's motion and returning regularly to its original position,it is said to have a vibratory or oscillatory motion.Such a motion is periodic,it repeats itself.
Examples are the motion if a rocking chair,the motion of a pendulum as it swings back and forth,a diving board,the strings of a plucked guitar, the prongs of a tuning fork struck with a hard object, and the vertical movement of a disturbed mass on a spiral spring.
The motion of a body may consist of a combination of two of the above,e.g. translation and rotation motion are involved in a ping-pong ball spinning through space from one player to another, or the driver.
