If you would like a more detailed and visual explanation of Simple Copper Pipes, take a look at the "Images" tab.
Moving And Dispensing Items:
If a Copper Pipe is pointing into air or water, it will automatically shoot out its items. To prevent this, placing something as simple as a Torch in front of it will suffice.
Copper Pipes will deposit their items into inventories like Chests, Barrels, and the Copper Fitting. They can also take out these items from those blocks, making them easy to use for intersections and storage.
Copper Pipes with Dispensers behind them will shoot items farther depending on their oxidization state and color, and Copper Pipes with Droppers behind them will shoot items out at a medium range, regardless of oxidization and color.
Copper Pipes that are being powered by Redstone will "shoot" specific items like Arrows, Splash Potions, and Snowballs, making them more versatile.
Different pipes have different cooldowns. Waxed pipes are the fastest, while normal pipes are slightly slower. Corroded Pipes are the slowest, and Colored Pipes have a medium speed.
If a Copper Fitting is placed behind a Copper Pipe, the pipe's transferring cooldown will be based on the fitting's cooldown instead, and no noise will be created when Dispensing/Shooting out items. Certain items like Ink Sacs, Glow Ink Sacs, and Sculk Sensors will emit particles and not be shot out of pipes if a Copper Fitting is placed behind them. This is useful for decoration, but keep it in mind in case this may hinder your pipelines.
Copper Fittings will prevent the flow of items whilst being powered.
Smoke And Water Leaking:
Copper Pipes are able to leak water and smoke under specific circumstances.
If a Pipe is Waterlogged or Water is placed directly behind the Pipe, the water will move along the Pipeline. This is visualized with drops of water falling from pipes.
Water will flow through up to 12 pipes, where it will then stop. By placing Copper Fittings in the Pipeline, you can renew the flow of water as much as you'd like.
Farmland can stay damp if under a leaking pipe that's up to 12 blocks above it and Sugar Cane are able to grow under these same circumstances, removing the need for you to place them next to water sources.
All mobs will be considered to be in water if under a pipe that's up to 12 blocks above them, meaning that all mobs will be extinguished if under a pipe, and Endermen will be damaged by walking under a Leaking Pipe.
Smoke follows these same rules, needing a Lit Campfire to be placed behind the entry pipe. Copper Fittings will renew the flow of smoke.
Bee Hives and Bee Nests will count Smoking Pipes as Campfires, allowing Copper Pipes to be used in honey farming.
Oxidization, Waxing, Lightning, Corrosion, And Coloring:
All Copper Pipes and Copper Fittings will oxidize over time. To prevent this, you can alt-click on one with a Honeycomb, or combine and Honeycomb and a Pipe/Fitting in a Crafting Table. Waxed Pipes will transport items faster, making them a more preferable choice.
Alt-clicking on a Pipe or Fitting will remove its wax, and if it's unwaxed, will revert its oxidization stage by one.
Copper Pipes and Copper Fittings can de-oxidize from lightning, but you'll have to set them up properly for it to work.
When a Lightning Rod is triggered on top of (or directly next to) a pipe or fitting, electricity will surge through the entire pipeline.
Each time a pipe or fitting receives electricity they'll de-oxidize by one stage, and glowing pipes/fittings will glow. You can even take the normally permanent corrosion off of corroded pipes and fittings this way!
If a Pipe or Fitting is completely oxidized, you can put it in a furnace to Corrode it.
Corroded Pipes and Fittings can be dyed, and said Dyed Pipes/Fittings can be combined with Glow Ink Sacs to make them Glow when an item is inside of them.
These are useful for decoration and light displays, or for keeping track of which pipes your items are in.
Colored Pipes will shoot ink of its color when a Fitting is placed behind it and it has an Ink Sac in its inventory.
Colored Pipes are also silent.
Vibrations:
When a Copper Pipe's opening is exposed to air, it will pick up Vibrations and send them through the pipeline, which can be used to distract Wardens or work with Sculk's mechanics easier.
All Copper Pipes with an exposed opening will pick up Vibrations, though the Vibration particle will only appear if a Block or Entity that can listen to it is around; this can be controlled via tags, but keep in mind that this is purely visual- the Vibrations will still be emitted.
Note Blocks will also be picked up by pipes, which will also be sent through pipelines like vibrations.
Copper Fittings are not required to renew Vibrations as they can travel through entire pipelines on their own as of 1.10.
Other:
Alternate-Clicking on a pipe with a hoe will rotate it.
Pipes will bubble underwater.
(Maybe they're not so simple after all..?)
