In encryption, can public/private key be used symmetrically and asymmetrically?

Question

Do you have a good explanation source for how public/private key encryption works? And how does one REALLY get the public key?
And what does each end need (in both symmetric & asymmetic if applicable) to do the public/private encryption method?

Answer 1

Well a public/private key encryption is called an asymmetric system because the sender and receiver use two different keys to encrypt the message.the sender uses the public key and the receiver can decipher the message with the private key.
Symmetric key is a single key used to both encrypt and decrypt a message.
Please visit the site below for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption