Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
In view of the high incidence of duplicity among Cepheids, a large number of binary systems remain to be discovered because of the low amplitude of the orbital effect superimposed on the radial velocity variation due to radial pulsation. This fact is shown by simple statistics. The importance of combining astrometric data with radial velocity measurements is also emphasized. Finally the systematics of the radial velocity amplitude as a function of the pulsation period is considered for classical Cepheids.