The one-dimensional heat diffusion equation has been solved analytically for the case of a heat pulse of the form F(t)=exp(-t/ tau )/ tau applied to the front face of a homogeneous body including the effects of heat loss from the front and back faces. Approximate expressions are presented which yield a simple, accurate technique for the determination of the thermal diffusivity and specific heat, suitable to a wide range of heat-pulse time constant and heat-loss parameters, without recourse to graphical techniques or requiring further computer analysis. A procedure is described for the determination of an effective time constant to allow application of the present results to the case of a nonexponential heat pulse. Experimental results supporting the theoretical analysis are presented for five samples of silicon germanium alloys of various thicknesses, determined using a xenon flash tube heat-pulse exhibiting an exponential dependence. Proper consideration of the experimental heat pulse shape is shown to lead to reliable corrections to the apparent thermal diffusivity, even for relatively long heat-pulse times. (14 References).