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It's the bane of any avid music listeners; headphones seemingly always become tangled when they're stored in a pocket, bag or elsewhere.

But the mystery of headphones tangling might finally be solved thanks to a study that suggests a workable solution.

Physicist Robert Matthews from Aston University in Birmingham says that clipping the two earbuds together, then attaching them to the end near the audio jack, will solve the problem - and he's got the research to prove it.

The mystery of how to stop headphones tangling has finally been solved (shown) Physicist Robert Matthews from Aston University in Birmingham says that clipping the two earbuds together, then attaching them to the end near the audio jack, will solve the problem - and he's got the research to prove it

In a separate study in mid-June Experts from the University of California, San Diego, investigated the probability of knotting, the type of knots formed and the dependence on string length in their study.

Dorian Rayner and Douglas Smith confirmed that 'complex knots often form within seconds' and that stiffer wires are slightly less likely to form such mind-boggling tangles.

When shaken up, the wires form coils and the loose end weaves though the other strands, creating the annoying knots.

Matthews set out to investigate this so-called 'Murphy's Law of String'.

Murphy's law is an adage that basically means anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Similarly, Matthews says that any string that can get into knots, will do.

To test his theory that string will always form loops he asked schools to conduct experiments, jumbling up regular parcel string to varying lengths and then repeating this process with each string having its ends joined, forming a loop.

Children at Coundon Court school near Coventry performed 12,000 individual knotting tests with string ranging in size from 55 to 183 centimetres (21.6 to 72 inches).

They found that the results of the experiments confirmed the 'Loop Conjecture', proving that simply joining the ends of your headphone cable together can dramatically cut the chance of it knotting.

In his study Matthews tasked Children at Coundon Court school near Coventry to perform 12,000 individual knotting tests with string ranging in size from 55 to 183 centimetres (21.6 to 72 inches). They found that the results of the experiments confirmed the ¿Loop Conjecture¿ and proved his solution

'The study explains why your headphone cable mysteriously turns into one big jumbled mess while it's in your bag or pocket,' said Matthews.

'We've also struck upon an easy solution - simply clipping together the two ends of the cords makes the cable less likely to form a knot - saving the frustration of having to untangle it before plugging in.

'This was all about using hard science to tackle an everyday issue.

'It was great to see how enthusiastic school students were to get to grips with the surprisingly complex science behind the phenomenon, and carry out experiments to study the effect and identify the solution.'

The phenomenon of spontaneous knotting also has other real-world implications.

It has attracted interest from biochemists working on DNA, as this thread-like molecule also gets itself tangled, with potentially serious consequences.

The new findings in Robert Matthews' paper suggest that nature may sometimes form loops in DNA to reduce this risk.

'This was a fun piece of research that has an immediate application that everyone can benefit from, but any implication our findings have on the fight to solve major health challenges will be even more important,' Matthews added.