The two-times champion was rarely troubled by an opponent ranked 43rd in the world who chose to slug it out from the back of the court against the supreme Spanish baseliner.
The fourth seed, who has yet to drop a set in the tournament, will face Karen Khachanov in the third round. The 21-year-old Russian is tipped to be a future winner of grand slams.
"It might look easy at this moment in our sport, because there are three players that won 18, 15, and 12," he said, referring to Roger Federer, himself and Novak Djokovic.
"But it not a very long time ago when (Pete) Sampras had 14, and it looked like nobody was going to have the chance to increase that number," Nadal added.
"Karen is a great player, he has chances to win a lot. But then there are other good players out there."
On current form, few people would bet against Nadal.
The 31-year-old, fresh from winning his 10th French Open title last month, was roared on by the crowd and he seemed to be able to produce winners at will with his swashbuckling forehand.
Young, 27, sought to mix up his play in the third set by rushing the net and he broke the Spaniard's serve. But in the end there was nothing he could do to prevent the Nadal juggernaut rolling on.
As Nadal left Centre Court, he was slightly taken aback when a fan asked him to sign a prosthetic leg, but he politely agreed.
Asked whether that was the strangest thing he had autographed, he chuckled: "Probably not".
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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