When we become students of physics and approach the task of adding vector quantities, we soon become aware of the fact that the addition of two vector quantities with magnitudes of 6 and 8 will not necessarily result in an answer of 14. The rules for adding vector quantities are different than the rules for adding two quantities arithmetically.
Vectors are quantities which include a direction.
As such, the addition of two or more vectors must take into account that the quantities being added have a directional characteristic. Using such a method, the first vector is drawn to scale in the appropriate direction. The sum of two such vectors is then represented by a third vector which stretches from the tail of the first vector to the head of the second vector. The resultant is the vector sum of the two individual vectors. Of course, the actual magnitude and direction of the resultant is dependent upon the direction which the two individual vectors have.