Chapter 2, Problem 65P

In car racing, one advantage of mixing liquid nitrous oxide (N₂O) with air is that the boiling of the "nitrous" absorbs latent heat of vaporization and thus cools the air and ultimately the fuel-air mixture, allowing more fuel-air mixture to go into each cylinder. As a very rough look at this process, suppose 1.0 mol of nitrous oxide gas at its boiling point, $-$ 88 ℃, is mixed with 4.0 mol of air (assumed diatomic) at 30 ℃. What is the final temperature of the mixture? Use the measured heat capacity of N₂O at 25 ℃, which is 30.4J/mol ℃. (The primary advantage of nitrous oxide is that it consists of 1/3 oxygen, which is more than air contains, so it supplies more oxygen >to bum the fuel. Another advantage is that its decomposition into nitrogen and oxygen releases energy in the cylinder.)