Steve Leonard wrote:
...Nitrogen is an inert gas, meaning it doesn't
support combustion,

[Tony V]
At the risk if being pedantic, that is not what inert gas means and
nitrogen is far from being inert. An inert gas is one that is
(essentially) chemically non-reactive like helium, argon, etc.
Nitrogen is easily reactive with NO2 possibly being the best known
nitrogen compound.

[Eric Greenwell]
That was what I thought, too, until I did a little research. According
to Wikipedia and the dictionary I consulted, Nitrogen is inert, as the
N-N bond in N2 is very strong. It is not a noble gas like helium, of
course. I think it is an error to say nitrogen (N2) is easily reactive.
NO2 is a strong oxidizer because the N-O bond is weak, but NO2 isn't N2.


Offering a middle way, Enc Brit (14th Ed.) mentions this:
"nitrogen gas is somewhat inert since the heat of dissociation of the
nitrogen molecule into atoms is large, but it can unite directly under
certain circumstances with several elements, including hydrogen,
oxygen, boron, silicon, lithium, magnesium, calcium, barium, titanium,
vanadium, tantalum, tungsten and manganese...."

Brian W