Why is the word "ambulance" spelled backwards on the front of ambulances?

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The word “Ambulance” is written in the reverse order. E comes first, the C, N, A… The reason? Because the driver in front of the ambulance will see the AMBULANCE spelt correctly in his own mirrors.

This is not due to “laws of reflection in physics”. Mirrors do not reverse left and right. Think about it: how would a mirror distinguish left and right from up and down, which is not reversed? A mirror has no built-in sense of gravity. Mirrors still work in space! In fact, a mirror only reverses “in and out”, i.e. around the plane of the mirror, which is the only preferred plane a mirror can have. Also consider: you see the initial letter A of “ambulance” on your left in the mirror and that’s where the letter A behind you actually is when you are looking straight ahead, so again left and right are not reversed.

So what about the ambulance? What you are seeing is indeed an “in out” inversion. Imagine the ambulance was made of glass. What does the ambulance driver see? He sees the lettering on the front the right way round. What’s more, if he was able to see the reflection of the word Ambulance in your rear view mirror, it would still be right way round.

Imagine then that the ambulance overtakes you. Now you see the lettering the right way round too… BUT NOTHING FLIPPED FROM LEFT TO RIGHT AS YOU WERE OVERTAKEN. The lettering was always the right way round.

But, you may object, if you turn your head to look at the writing on an ambulance behind you, it looks wrong way round. Yes, but that wasn’t the mirror doing a reversal — that was you turning your head. The mirror just allows you to see it without turning your head
 
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