Archimedes knew the golden power of boredom – so why can’t we stop bringing our phones into the bathroom?

‘There’s no more empty space for thought to wander through. We’ve filled every corner,’ writes Miski Omar. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor, was tasked with solving a tricky problem for King Hiero II of Syracuse. The story goes that the king suspected his new golden crown had been mixed with cheaper metals, but he didn’t want it damaged. Archimedes had to figure out whether the crown was pure gold without melting it down. Tough brief.

Then, one day, while sinking into a public bath, he noticed something: the water level rose as he slid in. The volume of water displaced was equal to the volume of his body. That was it! The key. He could weigh the crown and measure its volume by how much water it displaced.