Force is considered a vector quantity because it has both magnitude and direction. This means that not only does a force have a size (how strong it is), but it also has a specific direction in which it acts.
To understand this better, think about pushing a shopping cart. If you push it with a certain strength (let’s say you apply a force of 10 newtons), that is the magnitude. However, if you are pushing the cart to the east, that direction is just as important. If you were to push the cart with the same magnitude but in a different direction, like west, the outcome would be different. The cart would move in the direction of your push.
This directional aspect is what differentiates vector quantities from scalar quantities. Scalars have only magnitude, like temperature or mass, which do not depend on direction. However, since forces can change an object’s state of motion depending on their direction, we categorize them as vector quantities. In physics, we often represent vectors graphically with arrows, where the length of the arrow represents the magnitude and the arrowhead indicates the direction.