An important characeristic of dipoles is their dipole moment, which is a vector quantity with both a magnitude and direction. An example of an electric dipole moment occurring is in a pair of electric charges with opposite signs. The dipole moment would point from the negative charge towards the positive charge. The magnitude of the moment is equal to the strength of each charge multiplied by the distance separating between the charges. An example of a magnetic dipole moment occurring is in a wire loop with flowing current. The magnetic dipole moment would point through the loop (according to the right hand rule), with a magnitude equal to the current in the loop times the area of the loop.