> I think he wanted to know if it would be drinkable.

You're abosolutely right, that's what Howard wanted to know. And the truth is, old water *does* go bad when you leave it in the back of your car. This is caused by, among other things, cosmic rays and solar flares.

See, what happens is, cosmic rays created at the begining of time during the big bang collide with alpha particles in solar flares, and create a high-energy gamma ray. This gamma ray then shoots down through the trunk of your car and gets absorbed by a rust atom. By absorbing the high energy gamma ray, the electrons in the rust atom jump up an energy level. When they become less excited (try not parking near the smut shop so often) the electrons fall back to their previous energy levels. In doing so, the rust atom then emits a muon, and anti-muon, and an oxygen atom. The muon and the anti-muon instantly undergo mutual annihilation, creating another high-energy gamma ray, and the process starts again. The oxygen atom, on the other hand, flies down into the trunk, through the microscopic holes in the plastic jug, and collides with a water molecule. It sticks there, forming a hydrogen peroxide molecule. This makes the water not only undrinkable, but a bad thing to put in a radiator as well.

And that's the truth.

-- Dave