I am exploring the properties of waves when traveling thorough a transparent medium. I observed that when white light is shone through a prism the blue light refracts more than the red light in the spectrum. This is due to the interaction between the blue light and the molecules within that medium. 

I wish to know if anyone can give me more details the nature of this interaction.

A more through explanation as to why wavelength of the light effects the speed through a medium would be appreciated and any relevant laws or theories as this is a mystery to me.

According to Einstein's famous equation E = MC2, or Energy = Mass times the speed of light times the speed of light. This tells us that anything that has mass, such as matter, is comprised entirely of energy. Any physical object with mass is therefore simply a lump of energy existing in some stable form.

As I understand it, all forms of energy, including chemical energy, kinetic energy and potential energy are covered by Einstein's equation, meaning that fundamentally all forms of energy are the same basic 'stuff' (for want of a better word). My question is, therefore, what exactly is energy? I want to get to a fundamental understanding of energy, because it seems that such an understanding would help to explain much of reality.

I'm not asking for explanations about work done etc, I'm asking at the fundamental level what is energy?

If a space craft uses a laser to push it along in space could it at one point hit the speed of light?

Following the recent spell of cold weather, I noticed that there are still piles of dirty snow with sand or grit (but not salt) in them, but all the clean snow has melted.

I know that light can travel in waves, but what makes up those waves? Is it molecules or what?

I'm short-sighted, and during a recent haircut realised that objects far behind me still looked blurry in the mirror. If the light is reflecting from the mirror (which wasn't far away), why is it blurry?

On the first night of heavy snow - tues 5th Jan - it was cloudy but the sky was  a very light sepia tone all night - enough to see clearly by. It was much more light than on the subsequent nights which have been partially cloudy with a visible moon. On these nights there was the same amount of snow cover, but less cloud. 

On the sepia night it was lighter than if there had been a full moon.

When looking at fairy lights of different colours without my glasses, different colours flare different amounts. Blue the most followed by green, yellow then red. Why?

For my 18th birthday I received a silver bracelet, with what I believed were amethyst or similar stones set into it.

However, the purple stones appeared blue under the flourescent lighting in the biology labs, and under another type of light seemed clear white. Once under sunlight the stones again appeared their normal purple colour. There was no gradual fade of colour - moving from one light to a window yielded instant change - and under normal lightbulbs the stones also appeared purple, and the same with any light mixed with sunshine.

Is this to do with how the stones were cut, how they reflect the light, or is the stone itself responsible?

Thanks,

Eleanor

My 9 yr old son asked me: if he installed a torch inside a sealed flask made of mirrors and illuminated it briefly, would the light remain in the flask to "flash" out if it were opened. I answered that the light would decay away as mirrors do not reflect all the light and that this would be to quick to measure the decay period - thus, when opened, there would be no light relecting around in the flask. Am I right?