10 Well Known Facts You Thought Were True (That Actually Aren't)

2. Water Conducts Electricity

We€™ve all seen it in movies: the flickering lightning from a dancing electrical cable touches a puddle of water and instantly races through the wet ground to electrocute someone standing ten foot away, the current conducted by the water. It€™s a given: don€™t touch anything live with wet fingers. Water plus electricity equals certain death. Right? Wrong. It€™s actually the trace minerals in water that conduct the electricity. Most bottled and tap water contains calcium, magnesium, iron and sodium, sometimes deliberately, sometimes as a result of contamination by travel through pipes, etc. Sea water contains dozens of trace elements through washing through rock and silt. Distilled water (created by boiling water, collecting the steam in a reservoir and then allowing it to condense back into a liquid again) contains none of these minerals and adulterations, and conducts electricity about as well as a seal conducts an orchestra. None of that information, of course, is likely to help you if someone tips a plugged-in toaster into your morning bath, but we imagine that in that scenario you might have more immediate problems than questioning the veracity of an article you read online while skiving work.