 Absolute-series criterion for completeness

A normed vector space is a Banach space exactly when every absolutely convergent series converges in the space. Completeness implies the assertion because the triangle inequality makes the partial sums a Cauchy sequence. Conversely, select from any Cauchy sequence a subsequence whose consecutive differences have norm at most $2^{-k}$. The series of these differences converges by hypothesis, so the subsequence converges. The original Cauchy sequence then has the same limit. This provides a useful way to demonstrate incompleteness by a summable-norm series whose candidate sum lies outside the space.