Wings as a math visualization tool...

[Avros]

"To explain it in a more simple way: let say that we have a cube constructed from four smaller cubes (as in the second attached image below), there we have the four small cubes + the one that is constructed from all of them = 5 cubes. "

Would not the answer for the second attachment be 9 as it shows eight cubes all up and then the total as another cube?

Then you want a formula that will add consecutive cubes as it expands outward...