Nicomachus's Theorem

In number theory, the sum of the first n cubes is the square of the nth triangular
number. That is,

This identity is sometimes called Nicomachus's theorem.

Visual demonstration that the square of a triangular number equals a sum of cubes.

Numeric values and geometric interpretation

The sequence of squared triangular numbers is
0, 1, 9, 36, 100, 225, 441, 784, 1296, 2025, 3025, 4356, 6084, 8281, ...
(sequence A000537 in OEIS).
These numbers can be viewed as figurate numbers, a four-dimensional
hyperpyramidal generalization of the triangular numbers and square pyramidal
numbers. As Stein (1971) observes, these numbers also count the number of
rectangles with horizontal and vertical sides formed in an nn grid. For instance, the
points of a 44 grid can form 36 different rectangles.

Proofs
Wheatstone (1854) gives a particularly simple derivation, by expanding each cube in
the sum into a set of consecutive odd numbers:

1 + 8 + 27 + 64 + 125 + ...
= (1) + (3 + 5) + (7 + 9 + 11) + (13 + 15 + 17 + 19) + (21 + 23 + 25 + 27 +
29) + ...
= 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 + 11 + 13 + 15 + 17 + 19 + 21 + 23 + 25 + 27 + 29 ...
The sum of any set of consecutive odd numbers starting from 1 is a square, and the
quantity that is squared is the count of odd numbers in the sum, which is easily seen to
be triangular.
In the more recent mathematical literature, Stein (1971) uses the rectangle-counting
interpretation of these numbers to form a geometric proof of the identity (see also
Benjamin et al.); he observes that it may also be proved easily (but uninformatively)
by induction, and states that Toeplitz (1963) provides "an interesting old Arabic
proof". Kanim (2004) provides a purely visual proof, Benjamin and Orrison (2002)
provide two additional proofs, and Nelsen (1993) gives seven geometric proofs.

Generalizations
A similar result to Nicomachus's theorem holds for all power sums, namely that odd
power sums (sums of odd powers) are a polynomial in triangular numbers. These are
called Faulhaber polynomials, of which the sum of cubes is the simplest and most
elegant example.
Stroeker (1995) studies more general conditions under which the sum of a consecutive
sequence of cubes forms a square. Garrett and Hummel (2004) and Warnaar (2004)
study polynomial analogues of the square triangular number formula, in which series
of polynomials add to the square of another polynomial.