You can make nitrous oxide or laughing gas quite easily in the lab or at home. However, there are reasons why you might want to forego the preparation unless you have chem lab experience.What Is Nitrous Oxide or Laughing Gas? Nitrous oxide (N2O) is also known as laughing gas. It is a colorless sweet-smelling and sweet-tasting gas that is used in dentistry and surgery because inhaling the gas produces analgesic and anesthetic effects. The gas is also used to produce the engine output of automotive vehicles and as an oxidizer in rocketry. Nitrous oxide gets the name “laughing gas” because inhaling it produces euphoria.How to Make Nitrous Oxide or Laughing GasJoseph Priestley first synthesized nitrous oxide in 1772 by collecting the gas produced from sprinkling nitric acid over iron filings, however, nitrous oxide usually is produced using Humphry Davy’s method of gently heating ammonium nitrate to decompose it into nitrous oxide and water vapor: NH4NO3 (s) → 2 H2O (g) + N2O (g) The key h