All atomic nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons bound together by the nuclear force. There are 286 primordial nuclides that occur naturally on earth, each corresponding to a unique number of protons, called the atomic number, Z, and a unique number of neutrons, called the neutron number, N. The mass number, A, of a nuclide is the sum of atomic and neutron numbers, A = Z + N. Not all nuclides are stable, however. According to Byrne, stable nuclides are defined as those having a half-life greater than 10 years, and there are many combinations of protons and neutrons that form nuclides that are unstable. A common example of an unstable nuclide is carbon-14 that decays by beta decay into nitrogen-14 with a half-life of about 5,730 years: