In high school physics, I often saw the equation: $$Σ\vec{F}=m\vec{a}$$At the time, I understood it as "the net force is the sum of all forces acting on a body." Now that I’m studying mathematics at university, I’ve been thinking more formally about vectors. Since $\vec{F}$ is a vector then the sum of all the forces should formally be notated as: $$\sum\vec{F}$$ With the sum operator instead of the greek letter $\Sigma$.

Q: Is $\sum\vec{F}$ equivalent to $\Sigma \vec{F} $? Or is it just a notation that is used for for simplicity's sake?

In high school physics, I often saw the equation: $$\Sigma\vec{F}=m\vec{a}$$At the time, I understood it as "the net force is the sum of all forces acting on a body." Now that I’m studying mathematics at university, I’ve been thinking more formally about vectors. Since $\vec{F}$ is a vector then the sum of all the forces should formally be notated as: $$\sum\vec{F}$$ With the sum operator instead of the greek letter $\Sigma$.

Q: Is $\sum\vec{F}$ equivalent to $\Sigma \vec{F} $? Or is it just a notation that is used for simplicity's sake?