Lets take it back for a second...

[dpsayz]

Okey all you technical people, so we all know that gasoline is mostly built up around hydro carbons right? So the general formula would look someting like

4HC + 5O2 --> 2H2O + 4CO2

right?

So with that being correct, how would a Nitros Oxide system change this (or does it). What exactly does nos do to the combustion in general at the moleculor level... if anyone actually know.

Sitting in chemistry talking about thermal dynamics got me bored, so this question popped into my head.

[curtis73]

Nitrous Oxide is N2O. Under pressure and heat, it disassociates leaving the oxygen free to combust. Since ambient air is 21% oxygen and nitrous is 33% oxygen, it ups the available O2. Nitrous systems add both fuel and nitrous in proportion. More HC plus more O2 = more power.

[dpsayz]

ooo, interstesting. So just to completely geek it out.. i'd be soemthing like...

2HC + O2 + N2O --> H2O + 2CO + 2N

I think tha'd look good on a shirt or something haha. Yeah i'll probably end up doing that later.

Thanks.

[beef_bourito]

ok but that chemical formula's wrong. hydrocarbons dont all have the same formula. methane for example is CH4, ethane: C2H6. gasoline is formed of a plethora of chemicles, mostly octane though: C8H18, along with a bunch of other chems.

[dpsayz]

Well then what do you think it should look like.

And I don't what your talking about is correct either. Even though gas has alot of stuff in it, you would only include what is actually doing something into the formula; Hydro Carbons.

[beef_bourito]

hydrocarbons are a group of chemicals. gasoline is formed of a bunch of DIFFERENT hydrocarbons. the examples i gave above were examples of hydrocarbons. carbon can make chains with itself, that's how you get things like octane.

I'm going to assume that you're in grade 10 or lower or havent taken any chemistry courses.

so you can't really write the chemical equation for thecombustion of gasoline because different gasolines from different companies have different chemicals in them, all of which burn.


as for the nitrous oxide, it isn't involved in the reaction. it decays (dissociates, breaks apart, etc) with heat (around 500 degrees). when it does this it breaks into nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) so that you have more oxygen (which reacts with the gasoline to burn it, combustion is simply an exothermic synthesis reaction involving oxygen) and you can burn more gasoline.

for simplicity sake i'll use methane in this reaction

so you have normal combustion

CH4 + 2O2 -> CO2 + 2H2O

which means that 1 mole of methane will require 2 moles of oxygen to burn.

now you have nitrous oxide decay:

2N2O -> 2N2 + O2

when that happens you have more oxygen so you can burn more fuel.

[dpsayz]

Okey okey okey I got it now, and I am in chemistry honors as stated above... in grade 11... lol.

2C8H18 + 25O2 --> 16CO2 + 18H2O.

IN its simplist form right?

[beef_bourito]

yeah that's correct.

[dpsayz]

alrigt, cool. Thnx