The conception of ‘force’ as the product of ‘mass’ and ‘acceleration’ is based on the fact – easily experienced by anyone who cycles along a level road – that it is not velocity itself which requires the exertion of force, but the change of velocity – that is, acceleration or retardation (‘negative acceleration’ in the sense of mathematical physics); also that in the case of equal accelerations, the force depends upon the mass of the accelerated object. The more massive the object, the greater will be the force necessary for accelerating it. This mass, in turn, reveals itself in the resistance a particular object offers to any change of its state of motion. Where different accelerations and the same mass are considered, the factor m in the above formula remains constant, and force and acceleration are directly proportional to each other. Thus in the acceleration is discovered a measure for the magnitude of the force which thereby acts.