Timing changed after Cap + rotor swap?!

I think a lot of people confuse the rotation of the distributor for timing changes with the cap and wires being rotated instead of the trigger mechanism that tells the coil to fire.

Now lets really confuse it and say that you could literally turn just the cap (not the body of the distributor) with the engine running to the point the spark can't reach the contact it is supposed to be going to any more and the timing wouldn't change even to the point the engine died. :D