While going through my book (Organic Chemistry, Paula Bruice) I came across the following line:
We have seen that enantiomers have identical physical properties. They also have identical chemical properties—that is, they react with a given achiral reagent at the same rate. Diastereomers, on the other hand, have different physical properties (meaning different melting points, boiling points, solubilities, specific rotations, and so on) and different chemical properties —that is, they react with a given achiral reagent at different rates.
There seems to be no further explanation about why this is so, and I am unable to figure out the reason behind the difference in physical and chemical properties of diastereomers. I do understand why it would be so in the case of cis-trans isomerism, but not in the case of optical isomers.
What would be a plausible explanation for this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.