The scientific reason why your iPhone headphones get tangled

EVER wondered why your headphones always end up tangled in your bag? We finally have the answer.

Sick of your headphones being tangled? Turns out it’s just physics, not your messy bag.

IT’S an issue that has plagued man since the dawn of time, errr, headphone time anyway. Why do your headphones always end up tangled?

Well, like any important issue, it comes down to length.

A couple of guys from the University of California have published a paper titled Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string which reveals ground breaking data surrounding the mystery of tangled headphones.

The biggest revelation? If your cord is less than 46 centimetres in length it will never get tangled. Any longer than that and the more likely it is that it will turn into a tangled ball of doom. But at 150cm it hits the maximum possible probability of tangling at 50 per cent.

Apple’s iPhone earbuds, which seem to be the most prone tangling are 139cm long, putting them at the pointy end of tangling probability.

The paper also confirms that your headphones do actually tangle themselves within seconds, and that it’s not just due to your messy bag. This is mostly due to the cord being “agitated”, and the movement and tumbling of your headphones in the space they’re kept.

So there you have it, length does matter.