On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:28:53 -0500, Steve Barker
wrote:

Charles Bishop wrote:
I was repairing some landscaping lighting, and when I took the cover off
of the outdoor junction box, water came out. Don't know how much was in
there, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup. I'm guessing it wasn't enough to reach the
wiring connections, held together by wire nuts, or maybe it did.

Because if it had, the breaker would have tripped, right?


not necessarily, water is not conductive.

Di-inized water 5.5 × 10-6[1] changes to 1.2 × 10-4 in water with no
gas present[1]

Drinking water 0.0005 to 0.05 This value range is typical of high
quality drinking water and not an indicator of water quality

Water conductivity

Pure water is not a good conductor of electricity. Ordinary distilled
water in equilibrium with carbon dioxide of the air has a conductivity
of about 10 x 10-6 W-1*m-1 (20 dS/m). Because the electrical current
is transported by the ions in solution, the conductivity increases as
the concentration of ions increases.
Thus conductivity increases as water dissolved ionic species.

Typical conductivity of waters:
Ultra pure water 5.5 · 10-6 S/m
Drinking water 0.005 €“ 0.05 S/m
Sea water 5 S/m

So not HIGHLY conductive may be true, but nonconductive would be
false.