proof, resistant, tolerant

Water Proof. Water Resistant. Which is it? There is a difference. I have a watch and it is water resistant. Will water get in it? Yes it will, and it has. Will water get in a water proof watch? Unfortunately, yes it will. So what is the difference?

Here's how I see it. Lets think of two sacks/bags. The first is water proof, the second- water resistant. We fill both bags with water and seal them. So the first is going to keep 100% of the water in the bag. Water tight (or proof) is often associated with air-tight. if no water can escape than neither will air. Water resistant on the other had is not air tight. It may hold water for a long time but it will start to seap or absorb water. Like a child resisting his parents, will he resist, yes, but he will eventually cave to the desires of the parent. My watch is a cheap watch but it tells time. It is water resistant. It did fine in the rain and in the shower but I went swimming in a deeper pool once and I got water build up on the inside, mostly condinsated but water none-the-less. It still worked and I continued to use it up until a few days ago when I lost it on a river trip.

So I went floating down the river the other day with some friends. I took my camera. It is not water proof, or water resistant, and I didnt have a case or bag for it that was. If I were to drop it into water it would probably do unkind things to it- maybe recoverable, maybe not. On this float trip I came up with a new term. I decided that my camera was water tolerant. Many things are water tolerant. Well what does that mean? People thought I was crazy for bringing my camera on the river. They seem to enjoy the pictures now but at the time it was crazy. It did just fine. did it get a little wet, of course; everything on the river gets wet. It got splashed on and was for the most part, opporated with wet hands. The camera suffered no damage and the pictures turned out nicely. Under similar circumstances in the past I did have it fog up between two of the optic lenses but letting it sit and dry out fixed it right up, no problem. That is what I would consider water tolerant.

Humans are water tolerant too. We definately aren't water proof, or we wouldn't drown. We aren't water resistant, every kid knows she sits plays in water and her skin wrinkles and goes "prune." We are tolerant, we can splash around and get wet but don't expose yourself too long.