Hi,
I do not understand what the following phrase out of my text book means, with regard to boiling point: "when branching occurs the molecules between them become more spherical in shape, which reduces the contact surface area between them and lowers the boiling point."
Could someone please explain what this means please?
Especially what contact surface area means. Also, I thought that the boiling point generally increases as the carbon chain gets longer - isn't that branching?