What does it mean to have

Question

the sqaure root of 5 with a 2 in front of it? How do you figure it out?

2 sqrt 5 is two times the square root of 5.

It depends where the 2 is placed wrt the square root symbol. If it is on the same line as the square root symbol, then this means 2 times the square root of 5. If the 2 is above the leading tick of the square root symbol then the author is being pedantic and indicating this is the 2 nd root = square root. The latter symbolism is used when you wnat to indicate the nth root of something, for example a 3 above the leading tick would indicate the 3rd root or cube root.