Slinkies, being tension springs, exhibit much of the behavior expected of springs in general. Each Slinky has a constant k associated with it through Hooke's Law for springs (Knight p. 256). This dictates how strongly a Slinky will try to contract when acted on by an outside force. If a Slinky is left to hang, pulled downward, and released, the Slinky will begin to oscillate accordingly. The period of oscillation in seconds for any given Slinky may be found with

where m is the mass of the Slinky and k is the aforementioned spring constant (Knight, p. 385).