# Elliptic curve formulas for point addition

How can one derive the underlined formulas that are used in point addition of elliptic curves?

The text is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_curve_point_multiplication.

I assume that $\lambda$ is the slope and that then $\lambda(x_p-x_r)$ is the addition in the $y$ direction. But why do they subtract $y_p$ instead of adding it? And why is it $\lambda(x_p-x_r)$ and not $\lambda(x_q-x_p)$? As for $x_r$, I am lost.

You may be confusing the third point, say $S$, of intersection of $E$ and the line through $P$ and $Q$ with the point $P + Q = R$. Determining $S$ is just the first step in determining $R$. $R$ is, in turn, the third point of intersection of $E$ and line through $S$ and the zero point $O$. Wikipedia, as is traditional, chooses $O$ to be the point at infinity $\, 0:1:0 \,$ in the projective plane. With that choice for the zero point, the line through $S$ and $O$ is vertical, so, because $E$ is symmetric with respect to the $x$-axis (because $y$ appears only as $y^2$ in the equation for $E$), we just need to change the sign of the $y$-coordinate of $S$ to get $R$.
We now derive the Wikipedia formulas based on the two steps described above. The equation of the line through $P$ and $Q$ is $$y = y_p + \lambda (x - x_p).$$ Substitute that expression for $y$ into $y^2 = x^3 + ax + b$ to get $$x^3 - \lambda^2x^2 +(a + 2\lambda^2 x_p - 2\lambda y_p)x + b - (\lambda x_p - y_p)^2 = 0.$$ The three solutions to that cubic equation give the $x$-coordinates $x_p, x_q, x_s$ of the three points of intersection of the line with $E$. From Vieta's first formula, we see that the sum of those $x$-coordinates is $\lambda^2$ so that $x_p + x_q + x_s = \lambda^2$. When we reflect $S$ over the $x$-axis, the $x$-coordinate does not change, so $x_r = x_s$. Thus, $$x_r = \lambda^2 - x_p - x_q.$$ Using the equation of the line, \begin{align} y_s & = y_p + \lambda (x_s - x_p)\\ & = y_p + \lambda (x_r - x_p) \end{align} When we reflect $S$ over the $x$-axis, the sign of the $y$-coordinate changes, i.e., $y_r = -y_s$. Thus, $$y_r = \lambda (x_p - x_r) - y_p.$$