The gravitational meter-gram-second system is a system of mechanical units. The meter is the base unit of length or distance, the gram is chosen to be a unit of force, and the second is the base unit of time. All other mechanical quantities, and specifically mass, are expressed in terms of combinations of these three units. In gravitational systems, Newton's second law is expressed as F = ma, but since force is the basic unit rather than mass, it must be written in the form m = F/a, so that if the unit of length or distance is denoted by L, the unit of force by F, and the unit of time by T, the unit of mass becomes a derived unit of dimensions FL−1T2, in this case gram·second2meter, which is known as the hyl.