Well, the difference between one element and the next is just a proton. That’s like asking how adding a garage makes a house without a garage into a house with a garage.
Protons are a fundamental building block and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to add a single proton at a time.
There is no extra rules or anything here that would prevent that from working. So it isn’t really a pattern being neat and more so the rules being simple.
It’s kind of like asking “how do you get a new number when you add 1 to it? Why are they always valid numbers?” Because why wouldn’t they be?
Its only neat now. When it was first being discovered, the elements of the periodic table were scattered about. It wasn’t until enough of them were discovered that a pattern of periods began to emerge, and now we have filled in all the gaps. 1-92 is natural. Those element were made by the stars. 93 and up, is all man made and there is no limit that we are aware of, we are just limited by how much power it requires to make those elements with over 100 protons.
Protons and neutrons each equal about 1 atomic unit. Electrons vary but only equal 1/2000th of an au. So atomic masses are going to average out to nearly a whole au.
It isn’t neat though. There’s various types of radioactive decay — positron emission, neutron emission, electron capture, etc. — that can be influenced by the limited range of the strong force, an imbalance of protons and neutrons, certain particle interactions, or in some cases even certain environmental conditions.
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Well, the difference between one element and the next is just a proton. That’s like asking how adding a garage makes a house without a garage into a house with a garage.
Protons are a fundamental building block and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to add a single proton at a time.
There is no extra rules or anything here that would prevent that from working. So it isn’t really a pattern being neat and more so the rules being simple.
It’s kind of like asking “how do you get a new number when you add 1 to it? Why are they always valid numbers?” Because why wouldn’t they be?
That’s literally how different elements are defined.
Its only neat now. When it was first being discovered, the elements of the periodic table were scattered about. It wasn’t until enough of them were discovered that a pattern of periods began to emerge, and now we have filled in all the gaps. 1-92 is natural. Those element were made by the stars. 93 and up, is all man made and there is no limit that we are aware of, we are just limited by how much power it requires to make those elements with over 100 protons.
Protons and neutrons each equal about 1 atomic unit. Electrons vary but only equal 1/2000th of an au. So atomic masses are going to average out to nearly a whole au.
> …how is the pattern so neat?
It isn’t neat though. There’s various types of radioactive decay — positron emission, neutron emission, electron capture, etc. — that can be influenced by the limited range of the strong force, an imbalance of protons and neutrons, certain particle interactions, or in some cases even certain environmental conditions.
Why do buildings floor numbers go up in increments of 1 instead of randomly skipping numbers?