Energy Stored leading to Dielectric breakdown

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Homework Statement



A cavity can only store 1J of EM energy as it reaches dielectric breakdown at 3kV/mm. What dielectric strength would a new gas filling the cavity have if the energy stored was to be 4J.

Homework Equations



U=\frac{1}{2}(epsilon)E2

The Attempt at a Solution



I would use the above equation to find the E field that would result in 4J of energy stored. Can anyone tell me if this is the correct approach to answering this question?
 
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That's the correct approach. The energy scales as the E-field squared, so quadrupling the energy doubles the required E-field, so the gas dielectric must be able to withstand a field of 6 kV/mm without breaking down.
 
To solve this, I first used the units to work out that a= m* a/m, i.e. t=z/λ. This would allow you to determine the time duration within an interval section by section and then add this to the previous ones to obtain the age of the respective layer. However, this would require a constant thickness per year for each interval. However, since this is most likely not the case, my next consideration was that the age must be the integral of a 1/λ(z) function, which I cannot model.
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