Because the numbers cubed are way larger than the numbers that Excel can represent precisely. Excel uses 64-bit IEEE 754 floats for all arithmetic. They can be

Because the numbers cubed are way larger than the numbers that Excel can represent precisely. Excel uses 64-bit IEEE 754 floats for all arithmetic. They can be used to accurately describe integers smaller than 2^53, or ~10^16. The first number cubed is ~-5*10^50, so you are very clearly outside the range where excel is precise. You should not use Excel to do any serious mathematics, or really anything else where numerical precision is important.