Harmonic Mean Calculator

Summary

Enter a list of numbers and instantly compute their harmonic mean — the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of reciprocals.

How it works

1. Enter your numbers in the input box, separated by commas, spaces, or new lines.
2. The calculator validates each value — all numbers must be positive (non-zero).
3. It computes the reciprocal (1/x) of every number in the list.
4. It averages those reciprocals: sums them and divides by the count.
5. Finally it takes the reciprocal of that average to produce the harmonic mean.
6. Results update automatically as you type.

Use cases

• Find the average speed when the same distance is traveled at different speeds.
• Average price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios across a portfolio of stocks.
• Combine multiple rate measurements in physics or engineering.
• Calculate the F1 score in machine learning (harmonic mean of precision and recall).
• Average fuel-efficiency figures across different driving conditions.
• Determine the effective resistance of parallel resistors.
• Blend rate-based metrics in financial analysis.
• Average any set of ratios where the denominator units must be equal.

Frequently Asked Questions