As a secondary benefit, it may be decomposed readily to form breathing air. It has advantages over other oxidisers in that it is much less toxic, and because of its stability at room temperature it is also easier to store and relatively safe to carry on a flight. Nitrous oxide may be used as an oxidiser in a rocket motor. It is used as a recreational drug for its potential to induce a brief 'high' most recreational users are unaware of its neurotoxicity and potential to cause neurological damage. Nitrous oxide is used as a propellant, and has a variety of applications from rocketry to making whipped cream. Being the third most important long-lived greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide also substantially contributes to global warming. Global accounting of NĢO sources and sinks over the decade ending 2016 indicates that about 40% of the average 17 TgN/yr ( teragrams, or million metric tons, of nitrogen per year) of emissions originated from human activity, and shows that emissions growth chiefly came from expanding agriculture and industry sources within emerging economies. It is a major scavenger of stratospheric ozone, with an impact comparable to that of CFCs. Nitrous oxide's atmospheric concentration reached 333 parts per billion (ppb) in 2020, increasing at a rate of about 1 ppb annually. It is also used as an oxidiser in rocket propellants, and in motor racing to increase the power output of engines. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Its colloquial name, 'laughing gas', coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as a dissociative anaesthetic. Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain-reducing effects. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen.

At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, and has a slightly sweet scent and taste.

Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula NĢO.

Ozone 5 advanced crack