Honest question to know how others think. It doesn't really matter, does it? The rate of evaporation is irrelevant to the problem. Mr. Potato could have waited

Honest question to know how others think. It doesn't really matter, does it? The rate of evaporation is irrelevant to the problem. Mr. Potato could have waited a year, or dried them on the Uyuni salt plains. Why do you care? Would this distraction affect your ability to solve the problem?