Just the facts:

Helium Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Our 'Word of the Day' did help answer  something that I have always wondered about and now I know, thank you.

Is helium the same as laughing gas?

Nitrous oxide is also known as whippets, laughing gas/ balloons, not to be confused with helium. The gas is a depressant drug which can make a person feel relaxed. Some people may get giggly, hence the name 'laughing gas'.

The above explanation, might of not been all together clear and left some confusion. So go to the following and have no doubts at all:

Is Laughing Gas Just Helium?

Something new every day,

life goes on.

There are two notable properties of Helium that make it interesting.

• Helium is a noble gas. Noble gasses have unique electron shell configurations which bind their electrons in tight and refuse to form bonds with other elements. Chemically, they simply refuse to react with anything. They appear along the right side of the periodic table and refuse to associate themselves with other elemental riffraff.
• All known Helium on earth is the product of nuclear decay. It can be extracted from natural gas, but its concentrations vary, and it is a difficult and expensive task. Alpha particles, the nuclei of Helium, are emitted by naturally occurring radioactive isotopes.