A standing wave is a vibration of a medium where some points remain fixed while others vibrate at maximum amplitude, with points of zero displacement called nodes. The formula for a standing wave on a string relates the length, number of antinodes, and wavelength. For a 1.5m string vibrating at its first harmonic with 33 cycles in 10 seconds, the frequency is 3.3Hz, period is 0.3s, wavelength is 3m, and speed is 9.9m/s.