Can someone tell me if a slinky is a reciprocating or oscillating motion?

Also examples of oscillating motion, but please don't say pendulums or swings. Also is a seesaw oscillating?Can someone tell me if a slinky is a reciprocating or oscillating motion?It oscillates if it changes directions between two points repeatedly. Makes no difference what "it" is. If it moves back and forth, side to side, up and down, counter CW and clock wise, nose up and nose down, and/or roll left and roll right repeatedly, it's oscillating in one or more degrees of freedom (there are six degrees). The oscillations can be periodic or aperiodic or, similarly, regular or irregular.



As the teeter totter moves repeatedly nose up/nose down, that's its oscillation. I won't mention the p***s or s***s, but they oscillate nose up nose down as well (i.e., in the vertical plane around an axis of rotation).



A slinky can oscillate if you do it right. For example, if you hold it by one end and move it up and down, the coil will oscillate longitudinally along the length of the coil. In which case, the "two points" are the two ends of the coil.



But in other cases, by definition, it is not oscillating. For example, as it walks down the steps, it repeats the up, over, and down motion to walk its way downward. In other words, once I've defined one cycle, all the other cycles will be similar over time. But each cycle is between different points, different stairs as it descends. In which case, that is cyclical, but not oscillation by definition.



The pistons in a car engine also oscillate: they move up and down repeatedly between the top and bottom of their respective cylinders, their two points. But in that special case, they are claimed to be reciprocating; thus the name reciprocating engine.Can someone tell me if a slinky is a reciprocating or oscillating motion?Reciprocating is a saw motion i.e forward and back, open and close, slinky.