Lenny conundrum!?

Question

Several Symols sat silently and snacked on sugary sweets.
Well, and tea, too. But that would have ruined the alliteration.

Anyway, after tea, they decided to burrow out a larger burrow. In the first hour, they burrowed out 427 cubic inches of dirt. In the next hour, they burrowed out 256 cubic inches of dirt. In the third hour, they burrowed out 312 cubic inches of dirt. In the fourth hour, they burrowed out 546 cubic inches of dirt. In the fifth hour, they burrowed out 656 cubic inches of dirt. And in the sixth hour, they burrowed out 823 cubic inches of dirt. They continued for one more hour after that.

How many cubic inches, total, did they burrow in those seven hours?

Answer 1

Here is the sequence of numbers:
427 256 312 546 656 823

If you space this differently you get:
4 27 256 3125 46656 823???

Notice a pattern?
2^2 = 4
3^3 = 27
4^4 = 256
5^5 = 3125
6^6 = 46656
7^7 = 823543

So, in the seventh hour they must have burrowed 543 cubic inches, making the sum 3563.

Answer 2

3563 cubic inches

The numbers 427, 256, 312, 546, 656, 823 can be rearranged as 4, 27, 256, 3125, 46656, 823--- which is 2^2, 3^3, 4^4, 5^5, 6^6, and 7^7, so the last number is 823543

Answer 3

Number one, this is a puzzle for your enjoyment, and asking for the answer is lame.
Number two, most of these puzzles have more to do with some random facet of the website than it does math. The numbers are probably the number of words on some series of pages or something else equally as random.

Answer 4

I averaged how much they did in first six hours and got 503 so I added that to the total of the first 6 hours and got 3523.

I'm not sure about this, but it's my guess.