These are just a few of the basics, and should help you get started. Before long you will develop your own tricks and methods. As long as you end up with gold in your pan, there are no right ways or wrong ways. One of the biggest mistakes made by newcomers to prospecting is trying to pan right from the creek or river. You can dip your pan right into the water and get dirt from the bottom, but you are not likely to find much gold that way as a rule.
Gold is very heavy.
It has a specific gravity of 19.2 as compared to a specific gravity of most other materials in the same soil mix being below 7. It is how the weight of something compares with the weight of an equal volume of water. Something with a specific gravity of 5 is five times as heavy as an equal volume of water. Gold being 19.2, is going to be heavier than anything else in the soil mix, and will therefor sink deeper in the mix. When the soil is wet, gold will continue to work it's way downward until it hits an immovable object, usually a very large rock or bedrock.