Problem #1: Show that the sum of the cubes of the first n natural numbers equal the

square of the sum of the first n natural numbers.

Solution Path: It would be at good start to show the development of the sum of the first n
natural numbers. We will use the familiar method, supposedly made famous by Gauss.

Now we want to show the sum of the cubes of the first n natural numbers.

If we sum up all of the equations in the above list, we can represent the sum of cubes in
terms of n.

Expanding the binomial for (n + 1)4 and making the appropriate substitutions for the sum
of the first n natural number and the first n squared natural numbers, we will derive our
equation for the sum of the first n cubed natural numbers.

If we take our expression for the sum of the first n natural numbers and square the
expression, we should get this last expression.

Thus the square of the first n natural numbers equals the sum of the cubes of the first n
natural numbers.

Problem #2: Develop a sum for the first four powers of the first n natural numbers.
Solution Path: We have shown the sum of the first n natural numbers and the sum of the
cubes of the first n natural numbers in an earlier problem. At this moment, we will find
the formula for the sum of the squares of the first n natural numbers and the formula for
the sum of the fourth powers of the first n natural numbers, with the hopes of finding a
closed form for the sum of any natural number power of the first n natural numbers.
First we will find the sum of the squares of the first n natural numbers. To do this,
we will refer to the squares of natural numbers in terms of the cubes of those natural
numbers.

At this point, we will add up these equations together. By doing so, we can refer to the

sum of the squares

of the first n natural numbers in terms of the sum of the first n natural
numbers and n.

We will use these expressions to solve for the sum of the squares of the first n natural
numbers. We will confirm the result of the sum of the first n natural numbers in a
subsequent problem.

Now we will try to develop a pattern for the sum of the fourth powers of the first n
natural numbers.
We will use the same format as determining the sum of the squares.

Adding the above equations will yield the desired result: