When stretched out horizontally by two people, a Slinky may be shaken in many different ways to produce different effects. For the sake of two-dimensional kinematics, two ways of shaking will be considered.

One such way to shake a stretched-out Slinky is up and down (or left and right). This perpendicular motion propagates through the Slinky the same way it was created – as perpendicular motion. This makes a transverse wave, similar to those seen in water. Once the wave reaches the far side of the Slinky, the behavior of the Slinky varies depending on if the other end was fixed or not. If it was fixed, then the wave rebounds and travels back through the Slinky toward the origin. If the far end absorbs the wave, however, then the Slinky's work is done and it assumes stretched-out equilibrium once more.

Another way to shake a stretched-out Slinky is to push it away and pull it back in succession. This parallel motion generates a longitudinal wave, whose motion is constrained to the Slinky itself. Whereas transverse waves are two-dimensional, longitudinal waves are one-dimensional. The Slinky's turns compress and expand in visible pressure waves that travel along the length of the Slinky, resulting in one cool-looking Slinky.