Eli5
When new elements get discovered theoretically they tend to be towards the end of the periodic table, why can there not be an element that has 1000 protons, neutrons and electrons ? Or other multiples of each ?
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Protons are all positively charged and thus repel each other. That’s why neutrons, which are the same size but don’t have any charge are between these protons inside the atom’s nucleus, like kind of a wall between these repelling forces. But if you start packing too many protons into this nucleus, you’ll reach a point when this repelling force becomes too great and the nucleus become unstable and break appart. That is why you can’t have an infinite variety of elements. I simplified this the best I could. This is roughly the way I explain this to my high school students.
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