From my limited understanding, one newton is defined as the amount of force that gives a mass of 1 kilogram an acceleration of 1 meter per second squared. What I don't understand is why it corresponds to the mathematical definition of a newton, namely N = 1 kg · m/s^2. Maybe my question extends further. If we think about equations such as these mathematically they have no meaning. What does it truly mean to multiply mass with acceleration or displacement divided by time? If I say 3 ÷ 5, to me it means that I multiply the number 3 with the multiplicative inverse of 5. But if I say displacement ÷ time then it makes no sense to me, because it would imply that there's such a thing as the multiplicative inverse of time, which to me makes little sense. Of course, I am thinking about this narrowly. Mass, acceleration, time, displacement, etc., are all quantities in physics and not numbers. I guess my question is, why have we chosen to define it like this mathematically and not in some other way? Why multiplication and not some other operation?