Sir Isaac Newton is known for formulating the laws of motion and universal gravitation. His work in the 17th century laid the groundwork for classical mechanics, illustrating how objects move and interact under the influence of forces. Newton's three laws of motion describe the relationship between an object's motion and the forces acting on it, while his law of universal gravitation explains that every mass attracts every other mass in the universe at a force proportional to their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. These principles profoundly impacted physics and science.