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Will a metal detector detect gold?

The close reason indicates that questions here are expected to relate to scientific skepticism. Yes, these reasons are quite canned, but that makes no sense; the only reason I can think of to close this is that it belongs on Physics instead. If stuff like this is off-topic here, well and good, but I'd like to understand why.

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    Perhaps because there's no notable claim made in the media or elsewhere, nor any common folklore, that a metal detector will not in fact detect metal.
    – ChrisW
    Commented Jun 18, 2011 at 16:42
  • Since asking this meta question, I came across this. The reasoning behind this closure is apparent now, voting to close this meta question. (Although I disagree with the reasoning here, I'm not a regular enough user of Skeptics to feel comfortable arguing this.)
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Jun 18, 2011 at 16:45

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Sorry about that, Fabian should have left a comment explaining to you why your question was closed. We discussed it amongst ourselves, and we decided we had to close it in the name of consistency even though it lead to an amazing answer.

The claim is just not notable enough. We have to do this, otherwise everything can be shoehorned into Skeptics questions for as long as it is worded as "a friend told me that..." and that is bad.

If you do find a place claiming that metal detectors can detect gold, feel free to edit your answer and flag it. I will gladly reopen it. The answer is pure gold.

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  • Will do! No hard feelings about the closure; I'm quite aware that closing a question is not final.
    – Goodbye Stack Exchange
    Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 4:25
  • Isn't that commercial site I linked to a place claiming the metal detectors can detect gold. And nice play with words. :)
    – Larian LeQuella
    Commented Jun 19, 2011 at 23:17

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