Thank you for the chem answers...

[Nan in Mass]

Reading the answers makes me think my main problem is that the text is conceptual and glosses over some things. That wouldn't be a problem if I could just remember them, but I won't remember them unless I understand them, and I can't understand them unless I have the full story. I'm going to go back and look at the material again with your answers in hand. I think the incomplete explanations will probably work better for rest of the book than in this beginning section. Hopefully, they will, anyway. Thank you very, very much everyone.
-Nan