The first thing you want to do is isolate the radical.
That is, place the radical alone on one side of the equation.
We can do this by dividing both sides by 2.
Doing so we get this equation:
To remove the radical, we square both sides.
w + 4 = 25/4
Subtracting 4 from both sides we get:
w = 25/4 - 4/1
w = 9/4
How do we know if w = 9/4 is correct?
We plug this into the original equation and simplify.
In the radicand, we add and get:
2(
) = 5
5 = 5
The answer for w = 9/4.