Minecraft wiki entry for Redstone_computers, associated text: In an adding unit, for each bit (for our computer, we require four, hence 4-bit), there is a full adder. The full adder will take three inputs, each input can be either 1 or 0. The first two will be the user's input and the third will be the carry input. The carry input is the output of the previous full adder, this will be explained later. The adder will output two statements: first, the output and then the carry output, which is sent as input into the next full adder, a place value up. For example, I wish to add the number 0101 to 1011. The first full adder will consider the first place value, 1 and 1 as their two inputs (we are reading right to left). There is no carry input as there is no previous full adder. The full adder will add 1 and 1; which is 0, and carries a 1 to the next place value. The next full adder would add 0 and 1 and the carry input would be 1 which the previous full adder stated. The output of 0 and 1 would be 1 but there is a carry input of 1 and therefore will add 0 and 1 and 1, which is 0 and carries a 1 to the next place value. Reviewing addition in binary should resolve any confusion.