Would it be worth it to mine with a cheap laptop? How exactly does it all work? How much electricity would it take up? And is it worth it?
I assume when you say a cheap laptop you mean a laptop with onboard graphics. If thats the case you will probably only be able to cpu mine. If thats the case cpu mining costs more electricity then will give you profit.
I know you didn't ask for the information coming up but I thought I would be very thorough since you said you were a newb and you may ask these questions in the near future anyway.
If you really want to make a profit off mining I recommend buying a graphics card and throwing it into a desktop you already own or building a desktop from scratch. When it comes it comes to picking a card you want to pick a 5770, 5830, 5850, 5870, or a 6770. Price is very important though. Here is my recommendations for price points for each card.
For the 5770 and 6770 (exactly the same card with different name) the absolute most you want to pay is 110 and thats pushing it. I personally would be a buyer at around 90.
For the 5830 pay no more then 130.
For the 5850 pay no more then 160-170
For the 5870 pay no more then 200.
I'd also like to point out sapphire seems to be one of the top brands so if you can snag a sapphire you will most likely get the most megahash out of your card.