Question

Can white light produce interference? What is nature?

Answer 1

Hint: You can start by explaining what white light is made up of. Then briefly explain the phenomenon of interference and how bright and dark fringes are found using mono color light. Then write how colored fringes are formed when whit light is used for interference.

Complete step by step answer:
White light is made up of all the existing colors. White light can be divided into all the existing colors using an optical equipment called prism. When white light is passed through the prism it is split into what is called the VIBGYOR (representing violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red). You may have also seen this phenomenon during or just after a rain, this is why rainbows are formed. In the case of rainbows white light interacts with small droplets of water and splits into its constituents namely the VIBGYOR.
In physics interference is a very important phenomenon. Interference involves the superimposition of two waves which forms a resultant with amplitude more, less or the same as the two waves involved. There are also two specific conditions that are important for us – constructive and destructive interference. For constructive and destructive interference it is very important that the two waves either come from the same source or have the same or nearly the same frequency. Interference occurs in all types of waves including but not limited to acoustic, surface water waves, gravity waves, matter water and light waves.
When interference takes place we obtain dark and bright fringes in the case of mono color light. But if we use white light as a source for interference we obtain colored fringes with all the colors of VIBGYOR.

Note:
As discussed earlier to produce constructive and destructive interference, we need two waves from the same source or with constant phase difference. In labs, white light is not usually used to demonstrate interference, normally we use sodium lamps as a single light source for the two waves.