Direct calculation of time dilation

The possibility of explaining time dilation as a dynamic cause-and-effect phenomenon is explored by calculating the rates of three elementary electromagnetic clocks in a stationary and in a moving reference frame. The operation of the clocks is based on the interaction between a field-experiencing electric point charge and different field-producing electric charge configurations. The calculations show that, when the clocks move, they run as predicted by the special relativity theory. The slowing down of the three moving clocks is due to a different electromagnetic field produced by the moving field-producing charges (and hence due to a different force acting on the field-experiencing charges) as well as due to a change of the effective mass of the moving field-experiencing charges. Thus, for the clocks under consideration, time dilation can be considered a dynamic cause-and-effect phenomenon and not merely a kinematic effect, as time dilation is usually explained in conventional presentations of the special relativity theory.