The cubes of the first 12 whole numbers are: 0, 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, 343, 512, 729, 1000, 1331.
All of these cubes, except for 0, are cubic numbers.
Notation
The cube of a number n is written as n³.
Example
The cube of 5 is 125, or: 5³ = 5 × 5 × 5 = 125.
125 is a perfect cube
Historical Note
The term cube originally referred to a die with six faces, such as the type used in games and that can be rolled because its edges are rounded.
The notation c³ was used by Greek geometricians to refer to the volume of a cube with sides c. The mathematicians who later translated and adapted the works of the Greek geometricians kept this notation to refer to the value of a quantity raised to the third power.
This explains why the terms “square” and “cube” are included in the terminology used in arithmetic to describe certain numbers.