Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidizer similar to molecular oxygen. It is soluble in water. Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain reducing effects. Its name "laughing gas", coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational
Dihydrogen cation Dihydrogen cation The hydrogen molecular ion, dihydrogen cation, or , is the simplest molecular ion. It is composed of two positively charged protons and one negatively charged electron, and can be formed from ionization of a neutral hydrogen molecule. It is of great historical and theoretical interest because, having only one electron, the electronic Schrödinger equation for the system (in the clamped-nuclei approximation) can be solved in a relatively straightforward way due to the lack of electron–electron repulsion (electron correlation). The analytical solutions for the electronic energy eigenvalues are a "generalization" of the Lambert W function which can be obtained