Questions and Confusions of a Newbie Steemer

After my first post, I was silent on Steemit for a while. I was curating and reading the Steem whitepaper & steem-help posts as much as I could. But, the more I read, the more I get confused. May be, because I have a non-tech background. Below are the points I am confused about...

a. How does the Steem Power works for up-voting? As I have seen, whoever is voting up with whatever Steem Power, the vote count only goes +1.

b. How does Steem Dollar flows from voter to poster? For example, I have $0.016 in my wallet. But, whoever I vote up, it remains the same! Should not some amount be deducted from me and gets added to the poster I am voting up?

c. What is the difference between selling Steem Dollar on internal exchange and converting them to Steem? In my wallet, both options are given under Steem Dollar!

d. I read, Steem Power is locked for 104 week before I can convert them to Steem. Then what is the point of having a Power Down option under Steem Power? What does it do now?

e. I have seen a reputation system is building up on Steemit. How does this work? Does someone get reputed by receiving upvote or gaining followers?

f. I have read about Steem whales, who have huge Steem/Steem Power/Steem Dollar. I assume, most of them are founder/early adopter. But, why these people give their Steem Dollar to authors? As I understand, this does not increase the value of Steem coin, because money is not flowing into the system from outside. So, assuming whales are not doing charity here, how does it benefit them anyway?

g. How does Steem Dollar goes to a curator? As I understand, when whales are voting up a post, their Steem Dollar goes to a curator. But, does it go to anyone, who has upvoted that post? How the distribution actually works?

I understand, my questions probably does not add value to the Steemit network. But, still I would request for enough upvote (not Steem Dollar or Steem Power), so that the questions get noticed by knowledgeable people.