When calculating the magnetic moments of materials or molecules on the microscopic level it is often convenient to use a third model for the magnetic moment that exploits the linear relationship between the angular momentum and the magnetic moment of a particle. While this relation is straightforward to develop for macroscopic currents using the amperian loop model (see below), neither the magnetic pole model nor the amperian loop model truly represents what is occurring at the atomic and molecular levels. At that level quantum mechanics must be used. Fortunately, the linear relationship between the magnetic dipole moment of a particle and its angular momentum still holds, although it is different for each particle. Further, care must be used to distinguish between the intrinsic angular momentum (or spin) of the particle and the particle's orbital angular momentum. See below for more details.