... to start bettering my understanding.

If you have access to multiple platforms, a little experimentation can afford insight. Something like Data::Dump::dd can also be helpful. The following is on my Windoze 7 laptop:

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"print qq{'x$/y'};
 dd $/, $\;
"
'x
y'
("\n", "\n")
[download]

Update: In the spirit of making sure that what one posts is true, clear and helpful, I thought I'd test my example code with  $/ = "\r\n". The whole idea of the example was that you'd be able to see a difference between "\n" and "\r\n". Not so. Easy to see why when you think about it. I'll have to think of a better example!

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -MData::Dump -le
"print qq{'wx$/yz'};
 dd $/;
 ;;
 $/ = qq{\r\n};
 print qq{'wx$/yz'};
 dd $/;
"
'wx
yz'
"\n"

'wx
yz'
"\r\n"
[download]

(But at least dd does not mislead.)