Criticize the statement often made, that the mass of a body is a measure of the “quantity of matter” in it .

Mass is the property of a body that determines its resistance to a change in its motion. Acceleration of the body is directly proportional to the force acting on the body. The proportionality constant between force and acceleration is different for different cases and is a characteristic property of the object being accelerated. This property of the object is its mass, which gives the proportionality between force and acceleration. So the greater the total mass of the body, the smaller the acceleration produced by a given force. That is, the acceleration produced by a given force is inversely proportional to the mass being accelerated. Therefore, the mass of a body can thus be regarded as a quantitative measure of the resistance of a body to acceleration by a given force.