Two types of tests you could perform to determine if a substance was a metal or nonmetal.

Well, one could use a magnet to see if it's ferrous. One could melt it to check which type it is, use a metal detector, or just use their senses: If it dings or clinks like metal, and feels like it’s texture. If it polishes with metal polish, is reflective, can be shaped or shape when heated… It usually is a metal. If it rusts, or oxidizes, it is or contains metal. If it’s a ring or chain that turns your skin green, than it is metal. If it “smells" like metal, most likely, it is metal. Finally, if it walks like metal, and quacks like metal, most likely we have a metal… How can we be sure though?

Granted it can vary given different types of mixed metals, and other materials might share similar characteristics. Characteristics of a given metal can be found like density, which can be determined using volumetric and weight measurements. Other characteristics are also measurable including tensile strength, resistance to impact, flexability. hardness tests, and several others like conductivity and even chemical testing.

Granted other non-metal materials could have similar or even identical characteristics, there are fundamental properties metals have related to their elements. To know which specific metals we have, by heating them we could determine what is in samples by specific and fundamental melting points.

Metals will vibrate and flex to a certain degree, hence their sounds. Given we have a bought or found a metal, we then can measure its corresponding characteristics stated above (tensile strength, density, etc…) by using a variety of micro and macro testing procedures. For example, the characteristic of hardness is easily found by pressing an indentation into a metal and measuring its depth — that's called the Rockwell Method, and there are several others I have still yet to try and discover:)
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