/sci/ - Science & Math

>>16085923
I'm getting into chemistry and I'm trying to grasp the basics. There's plenty of material out there, but it usually ommits some crucial details that would explain why things are the way they are and because of this I can't really 'understand the thing' instead of just memorizing random rules. And I can't grasp the prediction of reactions.

There's few things I wanted to ask about;
>Fe + CuCl2 -> FeCl2 + Cu
Why does iron bond with chlorine instead of copper? Is it because both Fe and Cu are metals and they replace themselves in the bond? Is this because Fe-Cl electronegativity difference is lower than Fe-Cl?
Same deal goes with
>Cl2 + NaBr -> NaCl + Br
Here halogens replace each other. I often find these rules about things 'usually replacing each other' but it's never explained why. Electronegativity? Valence similiarity? Or something else?

>AgNO3 + MgCl2 -> AgCl + Mg(NO3)2
Why exactly NO3 doesn't break here? Is it because it's bond is stronger than potentially anything else in this equation?

There's a lot of specific affinities like that of various compounds to act in a certain way. I've seen special remarks concerning acids, salts, oxides and metals in reactions. I'm sure they're valid, but I'd like to know where they come from instead of trying to memorize what compound is a salt and how it reacts with other compounds because at this stage I don't even know the reason for this classification, so it has virtually no meaning to me. Could you point to some good resources on learning reactions?