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

It’s very good that you actually did put your ideas to the test and got results. Even unrigorous results are still results.

Now onto your question, it’s because most of the heat is coming into the icecream through the surface of the bowl. Air is a terrible thermal conductor so it factors in very little. From there you’ve ranked the materials by thermal conductivity, plastic being very insulating while metal being very conductive.