I'll answer some of your questions in part. I'll leave the extra explanations & questions to others.
Ripping is the process of extracting from the CD to your computer HDD. Burning is the process of creating a CD/DVD-R/RW. Since cd burners use a laser which etches (burns) into the surface of the CD (little bumps/holes which signify zeros & ones - digital data) .... thus it's refered to as burning.

I think you mean WAV right? 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, stereo; Waveform audio http://mp3.about.com/od/glossary/g/wav.htm & - http://filext.com/detaillist.php?ext...&Search=Search
It's safest to 1st rip to wav or aiff 1st before converting to mp3 or other.

As mentioned earlier, data format will maintain the mp3's id3 tags. However, perhaps some mp3 players might not recognise disks not burnt specifically in mp3 format. I don't know.