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

Question

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.

Answer 1

I believe this is just a riddle, not a math problem.

The question asks "How many cubic inches, total, did they burrow *in* those seven hours?"

The answer is no dirt was burrowed *in* those seven hours; it was all burrowed *out*.

The answer is 0.

Edit:
Actually, since I first posted my answer, I've seen an alternate solution. If you look at this sequence of numbers:
2^2 = 4
3^3 = 27
4^4 = 256
5^5 = 3125
6^6 = 46656
7^7 = 823???

...you'll notice a pattern that matches the numbers above, this should help you figure out a number for the 7th hour. Add up all the 3-digit numbers for each our...

Answer 2

Unless we know how many cubic inches they burrowed in the seventh hour, we cannot answer this question.