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'As we have noted in the single-variable edition of Active Calculus, several fundamental ideas in calculus are more than 2000 years old, and calculus as a formal subdiscipline of mathematics was first introduced and developed in the late 1600s. Mathematicians agree that the subject has been understood – rigorously and by experts – since the mid 1800s. The discipline is one of our great human intellectual achievements.

While each author of a calculus textbook certainly offers her own creative perspective on the subject, it is hardly the case that many of the ideas she presents are new. Indeed, the mathematics community broadly agrees on what the main ideas of calculus are, as well as their justification and their importance; the core parts of nearly all calculus textbooks are very similar. As such, it is our opinion that in the 21st century – an age where the internet permits seamless and immediate transmission of information – no one should be required to purchase a calculus text to read, to use for a class, or to find a coherent collection of problems to solve. Calculus belongs to humankind, not any individual author or publishing company. Thus, a main purpose of this work is to present a new multivariable calculus text that is free. In addition, instructors who are looking for a multivariable calculus text should have the opportunity to download the source files and make modifications that they see fit; thus this text is open-source.'

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