California Teacher Credentialing Examination (CSET) Practice Test

The physicist known for describing the three laws of motion is Isaac Newton. His work in the late 17th century, particularly in his seminal book "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica," set the foundation for classical mechanics. Newton's laws of motion explain the relationship between a body and the forces acting upon it, as well as the body's motion in response to those forces. These three laws are essential in understanding how objects move and interact, which is a fundamental concept in physics and engineering.

Other notable figures like Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler made significant contributions to science and astronomy but did not formulate the three laws of motion. Copernicus is known for the heliocentric model of the solar system, Galileo for his work in kinematics and support for the Copernican system, and Kepler for his laws of planetary motion, which describe the orbits of planets around the sun rather than the laws of motion related to objects.