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The Periodic Table of the Elements is currently made up of 118 elements. This number will likely increase in the future as larger elements are synthesised. In the natural world (on Earth) only 94 elements occur naturally, with only 84 of them being primordial. This means that they have existed in their current form since before the Earth formed, whereas the other 10 have only been formed through the breaking down of other elements.
The final 24 elements are synthetic and have been created in labs, some only existing for fractions of a second due to their instability. This is why the periodic table is slowly expanding, as advances in technology increase our capability to create and detect these large elements. Unfortunately due to their instability it is unlikely many of them will ever have any practical use, although there is a theorised "island of stability" which may see super heavy atoms in the future be created which are stable enough to be used for real applications.
The final 24 elements are synthetic and have been created in labs, some only existing for fractions of a second due to their instability. This is why the periodic table is slowly expanding, as advances in technology increase our capability to create and detect these large elements. Unfortunately due to their instability it is unlikely many of them will ever have any practical use, although there is a theorised "island of stability" which may see super heavy atoms in the future be created which are stable enough to be used for real applications.
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