Powering

Redstone wire, has two simple states. On and off. To power redstone wire, 1 of 4 switches must be activated. Redstone wire can be used to power various items from a distance, such as doors, trapdoors similarily, powered rails and pistons. Redstone wire can send a charge through a block and into any of the items listed above and more. It cannot send a charge through a block and into more redstone wire unless a redstone repeater is on the other side of that block, facing away from the switch.

Here's an example.
* = switch
- = wire
> = repeater
[ ] = block (stone, wood, grass)
a = item Unpowered
A = item powered

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*---[ ]---a

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*---[ ]A

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*---[ ]>---A

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You can also chain redstone signal through blocks using repeaters, which doesn't require redstone wire, however it is not efficient because repeaters use much more redstone dust to be fabricated. Here's an example.




*>[ ]>[ ]>[ ]>[ ]>--A

-Joshua Richardson