HARMEAN

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

See Also

Returns the harmonic mean of a data set. The harmonic mean is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of reciprocals.

Syntax

HARMEAN(number1,number2,...)

Number1, number2, ...    are 1 to 30 arguments for which you want to calculate the mean. You can also use a single array or a reference to an array instead of arguments separated by commas.

Remarks

  • The arguments must be either numbers or names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
  • If an array or reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.
  • If any data point ≤ 0, HARMEAN returns the #NUM! error value.
  • The harmonic mean is always less than the geometric mean, which is always less than the arithmetic mean.
  • The equation for the harmonic mean is:

    Equation

Example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

ShowHow?

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

    Selecting an example from Help

    Selecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.
 
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Data
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Formula Description (Result)
=HARMEAN(A2:A8) Harmonic mean of the data set above (5.028376)