Why can't the beam be represented only as a point particle in its fbd?

Questions 1. Draw the freebody diagram of the beam in the beam balance. Why can't the beam be represented only as a point particle in its free~body diagram? Shown in Figure 1 is a uniform beam of length L and supported at x = p. There are masses at the left (m1) and at the right (m2) of the beam so that the system is in static equilibrium. m X = 0 X = L/2 X = p X =L Figure 1: Beam with hanging masses