If the strong nuclear force is stronger than electrostatic repulsion, why don't nuclei collapse into a point?

Question

Today in class we were discussing the strong nuclear force, and our teacher was explaining about how the strong nuclear force counteracts the repulsion force between protons in a nucleus. When asked about the relative strength of the two forces in question, she said that "The strong nuclear force is the strongest force of nature, and is infinitely stronger than the repulsion force between the protons". Now, if that were true, how would the atom remain in equilibrium, because if I'm correct, Equilibrium is achieved when the net force on a body is zero. However, in this situation, that doesn't seem to be the case. Could someone elaborate on this apparent contradiction?

Answer 1

The strong force is short range. It decays much more rapidly with distance than the electrostatic force. In effect, nuclei can be attracted to their closest neighbors. But anything much farther is too far for strong attraction.