I’m trying to simply things in dummy terms so I remember it easier rather than memorizing a definition I want to understand it on a basic level. A Neutron is an uncharged elementary particle that equals a protons mass in a nucleus this stabilizing it, I also know that in an atom there has to be equal amounts of neutrons and protons, and that the neutrons act as a sort of binder, so what sort of analogy or explanation could be used to describe it? Does a Neutron sort of act like the Mortar for a Brick Structure? Or like the glue that keeps protons from falling apart?
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I think the mortar analogy is pretty good. Ultimately what you are asking is “what increases the chance that the nucleus will stay together forever, vs break apart” The word for atoms that break apart is “radioactive”.
All larger atoms are made inside mostly dying stars. As the atoms are forming, you can imagine all sorts of combinations of protons and neutrons being formed a billion times a second. The more stable combinations last longer. Some might only last for a millionth of a second, others for a minute. But in that stellar furnace, eventually the stable combinations are all that is left. And those are the atoms with roughly even numbers of protons and neutrons for smaller sized atoms. As they get bigger, the number of neutrons seems climbs until even then, all the atoms are all radioactive and break apart.
As for why neutrons help, I think the fact that they have no charge helps ease the strain of the protons being so close together. But neutrons themselves cannot exist outside the nucleus. They themselves are unstable. So at some point, you have too much mortar. The mortar wants to crack apart.
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