The physicist known for the law of universal gravitation is Sir Isaac Newton. He formulated this law in the late 17th century, which describes the gravitational attraction between two masses. According to this law, every point mass attracts every other point mass in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between their centers. Newton's work laid the foundational principles of classical mechanics and changed our understanding of the physical world, influencing scientific thought for centuries.