why does ice cream melt faster in a glass/ceramic bowl compared to paper/plastic bowl?

Question

I noticed that ice cream melts faster in a glass or ceramic bowl than when I put it in a plastic bowl.

So I got curious and did a little testing. It seems that ice cream melts faster to slower in this order:

Stainless – Glass/Ceramic – paper – plastic.

I’m no scientist and this “test” was not strictly controlled so I might be wrong.

But is there a scientific reason why frozen dairy milk melts faster when it’s contacted to certain materials?

In: 3

Answer 1

If you are interested in continuing your little material experiment, put each type of bowl in the freezer so it starts at the same temp as the ice cream. When something has good insulation, it will keep an item at the temp it started at. So if one of your materials is a good insulator, it will melt the ice cream faster when all the bowls are at room temp, but will melt slower when all the bowls are at freezer temp