Dear student,

The word oscillatory refers to something that moves back and forth repeatedly. The word periodic refers to something that repeats after a regular amount of time.

While oscillatory motion will almost certainly be periodic, not all periodic motion will be oscillatory.

A common example is the orbit of the earth around the sun. A complete orbit takes roughly 365 days and therefore this is a periodic motion. However, cannot be said to be oscillatory.

It may help to think of oscillatory motion as a certain type of periodic motion, much as a square is a certain type of rectangle.

Please feel free to ask your queries here. We are all IITians and here to help you in your IIT JEE preparation.

All the best.

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Sagar Singh

B.Tech, IIT Delhi