Nitrous oxide

Nitrous oxide is a gas with the chemical formula N₂O. It is found naturally in the air. It is also made artificially, because it has many uses. It is the third most important greenhouse gas. Because it is a greenhouse gas, people are trying to use it less.

Uses

Nitrous oxide is used by doctors and dentists to reduce pain. In the body, it makes people feel happy. For this reason it is also called "laughing gas". It is sometimes used only to feel happy, like an illegal drug.

Nitrous oxide is used in high performance cars to increase the power of their engines. When it is used this way, it is usually called "nitrous" or "NOS".

Nitrous oxide can also be used in aerosol spray cans, especially for foods like whipped cream. This is because it has a sweet taste and is not toxic, and also makes the whipped cream more fluffy.

Nitrous Oxide Media

• Laughing gas Rumford Davy.jpg

  Satirical cartoon showing a Royal Institution demonstration of Laughing Gas with Humphry Davy and Count Rumford, entitled "Living Made Easy" and subtitled "Prescription for Scolding Wives"

• Anaesthesia exhibition, 1946 Wellcome M0009908.jpg

  Sir Humphry Davy's Researches chemical and philosophical: chiefly concerning nitrous oxide (1800), pages 556 and 557 (right), outlining potential anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide in relieving pain during surgery

• HATS Nitrous Oxide concentration.png

  Nitrous oxide atmospheric concentration since 1978

• HATS Nitrous Oxide growth rate.png

  Annual growth rate of atmospheric nitrous oxide since 2000

• Global Nitrous Oxide Budget 2020.png

  Earth's nitrous oxide budget from the Global Carbon Project (2020)

• N2O whippets.jpg

  Food-grade N₂O whipped-cream chargers

• Medical-grade N₂O tanks used in dentistry

• Doctor and Mrs Syntax, with a party of friends, experimentin Wellcome L0022227.jpg

  Aquatint depiction of a laughing gas party in the nineteenth century, by Thomas Rowlandson