The Lyapunov time scale defines the time for any variation of position or momentum to be amplified by a factor of e. The exponential growth applies equally to a

The Lyapunov time scale defines the time for any variation of position or momentum to be amplified by a factor of e. The exponential growth applies equally to a measurement error and a quantum event affecting the object's momentum. Quantum events such as alpha decay (shooting out a helium nucleus with momentum of about 1e-21 Ns) start off small but after 50 Lyapunov times can get huge.