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Equation of an elliptic curve
An elliptic curve is the set of solutions to a general equation in the third degree in two variables.
General form

Weierstraß normal form
The general equation for an elliptic curve has ten coefficients. A linear transformation is employed to simplify it to a form easier to work with.

When the coefficients of the general equation are worked out in the transformed coördinates
in terms of the original coördinates
, this transformation can be solved for its Greek-lettered coefficients, and the general equation may be expressed much more simply in Weierstraß normal form with four coefficients, only two of which are free.

Elliptic curves over algebraic fields
The elliptic curve itself, defined by an algebraic equation, consists of the set of solutions to its equation over some algebraic field, which may or may not be explicitly specified in any particular context.
It is generally easiest to visualize the elliptic curve or draw a graph of it over the field
of real numbers. If complex (real+imaginary) solutions to its equation are of interest, then the field is
; if rational points on the elliptic curve are of interest, then the field is
.
For cryptographic applications, it is usually the case that the elliptic curve is defined over an arbitrary "finite field"
which is neither a subfield nor an extension of the real numbers.
Point group operation
The set of ordered pairs
that solve the equation of an elliptic curve in Weierstraß normal form
together with an additional point
"at infinity," form an additive abelian group under a specific operation "
."
Identity and inverse
is the group identity element; for all points
on the elliptic curve,
The group inverse of a point is formed by reflecting it across the x-axis:
and
General calculation
The intuitive idea is to consider the elliptic curve equation over the real numbers. If a straight line intersects the elliptic curve at two points, then their group sum is defined as the group inverse of the third point at which the line intersects the elliptic curve, so that

The mechanics of this operation are labor-intensive but fairly straightforward to derive from scratch. Substitute the equation for the line through
and
into the equation for the elliptic curve
solve for x, and factor out the first two solutions
and
to find
If
is the slope, then we can substitute
and factor out
to solve for x to find the third point
where



Complete the cube and factor x – x1
Substitute


Complete the square and factor x – x2
Substitute
- Solve the remaining linear identity for the last factor

- Substitute
into the equation for the line to find 
- The reflection of
across the x-axis is the result of the group operation: 
Point doubling
Finding the group sum of a point with itself is a special case because it involves finding a line tangent to the elliptic curve at the point to be "doubled" rather than passing through two distinct points. Differentiate the Weierstraß equation
with respect to x (basic calculus) to find the slope of the line tangent to the elliptic curve at



Proceed as above with
and