The mass of each individual object represents a fraction \(m_i/M\) of the total mass. Now suppose the \(N\) objects are at different positions along the \(x\) axis: \(x_1\), \(x_2\), \(x_3\), . . . , \(x_N\). (Figure 7-20). By analogy to Equation 7-26, we write the position of the center of mass as a weighted average of these positions: