strong nucleur force confused

my textbook says that the overall effect o the force is to pull the nucleus together but the repulsive action prevents it from collapsing to a point..

but i thought that no two things can actually touch cuz the electromagnetic force does not let two electrons of outermost orbits actually touch? so they wont be able to collapse to a point...

The residual strong /nuclear force you're referencing can be considered to work solely between the nucleons, i.e. protons/neutrons of your nucleus. It acts to bind them together and repulse them if they become too close (can't remember the exact figure, but it's close.)

The electrons in outer orbits don't touch for several reasons, one of which is that their orbits aren't colinear. All the orbits are different and don't actually overlap. In the case they did somehow try to touch, the coulomb force (electromagnetic repulsion) would indeed cause a repulsion and they wouldn't touch.

I'm rusty on this stuff but that should be a satisfactory reply I hope :-;

ahh ok thanks!
wait so was the textbook wrong then? nothing can collapse to a point...

ahh ok thanks!
wait so was the textbook wrong then? nothing can collapse to a point...

What the textbook said is correct. If the strong nuclear force didn't repulse at less than 0.7 fm the gravity of the nucleons would collapse them together.

Even with the strong nucler force being as repulsive as it is it is possible to get nucleons to the point where there is no distance between them. For example at the very centre of neutron stars for the gravity is strong enough to overcome the strong nuclear force.